Casey Veggies is a 30 year old rapper from Los Angeles, California notable for being a founding member of the now defunct Odd Future collective. He’s also built a tight solo discography for himself including a couple full-lengths, a couple EPs & 8 mixtapes in nearly 2 decades. Standouts include the Customized Greatly series, Sleeping in Class, Life Changes and Live & Grow. That said: I was highly interested in hearing Casey’s 9th mixtape after learning that South Carolina plugg producer Dylvinci was fully on board with it.
The 90 second “Another Lane” sets the tone of the tape from the cloudy trap instrumental to the lyricism boasting that he’s in a different lane compared to these other motherfuckers whereas “Prada Tags” brings that plug sound full circle talking about being young & coming from the bottom. The title track works in more sparse, minimalistic drum & hi-hat patterns, subby 808s & heavy low end, piano samples, airy pads & icy synths discussing the things that make him nostalgic, but then “Won’t She” featuring IAMSU was an ok single despite the mellow beat & subject matter of refusing to go out sad.
“Put the City On” keeps the plugg beats coming representing his hometown of L.A. leading into “Boss Talk” featuring D Smoke takes the cloudy boom bap detailing the boss statuses that both of them have maintained. “Cut Different” goes plugg once more talking about how you ain’t dealing with no scrub & that he ain’t like the rest just before the synth-funk “Phillip Lim” featuring King Chip encourages the shorties to fuck with them.
Dylvinci mixes elements of g-funk, boom bap & trap on “Heavyweight” looking to put a woman who don’t have a man in designer while “No Flaggin’” refuses to stop grindin’ as it instrumentally kinda throws it back to the 80s’ a bit. “Savage” goes for a pluggier vibe talking about what money has done to him while the serenely produced “Either Way” discusses catching Ws regardless although Sean Ev & TTM Dawg’s verses don’t do much for me. “Curtains Closed” ends the tape by glamorously asking what’s up with y’all not getting money.
Even I’ll tell you that it’s been quite some time since I’ve enjoyed a Young Veggies project as somebody who’s been down with him since the OF days & with Nostalgia, it’s the best that he’s sounded in nearly 10 years. It sounds like he’s having fun eagerly seeking to evolve artistically & Dylvinci’s production is better than a lot of Casey’s recent material tightly expanding his sound by dabbling with plugg, trap, boom bap, g-funk & even synth-funk.
Score: 3.5/5
Keep up with @legendswill_never_die on Instagram & @LegendsllLiveOn on Twitter for the best music reviews weekly!
Legends Will Never Die 