Welcome to HHH Listening Club!
This week we'll be listening to Out The Mud by $Ha Hef.
Background
provided by /u/tancredinho
"Come from a troubled life / at 13 I used to juggle dice
At 15 I learned to bubble rice / should be doin double life"
$Ha Hef's descriptions of street life in the Bronx are equal parts poetic and sobering. One of the many 'students' of the Roc Marciano school of street rap, minimalistic production and intricate rhymes blend together in his most recent album, Out the Mud. As the city's hip-hop scene continues to splinter between hit chasers and old-school purists, Hef takes listeners on a much more cinematic (and thought-provoking) journey through the streets of New York.
$Ha Hef is a member of Da$h and RetcH's Heir Gang, his style is distinctly different from the more druggy raps of his friends. The MC hits the sweet spot between the soft spoken street lyricism of MCs like Roc Marci & Ka and the raw energy of early Lox and Dipset cuts, aided by production from frequent collaborators VDon, L.S. XXXX, and Grimm Doza, among others. Out the Mud, his 6th full-length release, dropped in July 2017. Hef pulls no punches in his raps, viciously delivering bar after bar of fly street shit: "We the damn gorillas so the fans feel us/ got Instagram killers we the real gram dealers" $Ha spits on "Wishing Well", a track accompained by one of his finest visuals.
Though he made some waves earlier last year when his track "Po It Out The Brick" got an official remix with Memphis legend Project Pat, $Ha recruiting Prodigy (RIP) for the grimy cut "Made Me Do" off Out the Mud is a much more impressive accomplishment. Paired with the legendary Mobb Deep MC $Ha delivers arguably the best verse of his career, his ominous delivery accompanied by equally sinister bars
Mob forces, OTM strapped up like the armed forces
I ain't beef with no niggas except the law enforcement
Hunnit round, I'm the bad seed that made the apple rotten
Black market mob with them niggas that got the apple poppin'
None of y'all higher than me, I might just die about it
Only real supplier is me, ain't gotta lie about it
Few MCs out sound like $Ha right now, fewer still are only in the mid-twenties. He's lived what he raps about his whole life ("I make the pack move at the speed of light/ I learned the hustle 'for I learned to read and write") and perhaps that's what makes his music so genuine. Either way, as many of New York's rising MCs continue to distance themselves from the region's core sounds, $Ha has kept his brand of hip-hop true to himself, his hood, and his city.
This project was selected by u/tancredinho
Album: Out the Mud
Artist: $Ha Hef
Producer(s): VDon, HNIC, Pierre Bourne, A$AP P on the Boards, L.S. XXX, J Breez, Grimm Doza, Thelonious Martin, Jeww Baby, Doola
Representing: Bronx, New York
Streaming Sources:
Guidelines:
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