Lil Shine is a 21 year old recording artist from Minneapolis, Minnesota who introduced himself off his first couple of extended plays Sh!ne & Heavenly Ascension respectively. He would go on to follow these up with the full-length debut Losing Myself as well as the Lovesick & Tearscape EPs. Coming off the sophomore effort Shine Forever though, his 3rd album here has been clamored to be superior to his debut & I had to see for myself whether or not that’s the case.
“Nobody” gives us a taste of what’s to come from the pluggnb instrumental to the lyrics about the inability to feel love or the drugs he consumes whereas “Way 2 Up” tells his bitch his infatuation with the drank & her showing him tough love. “Got Down” has a more standard plugg vibe in general talking about his girl wanting to fight prior to “Dam, Dam” compares the strength of the lean in his cup to mace & telling anyone who wants to live like him to take risks.
As for “Like What”, we have Shine making it clear that you can’t ask him for drugs because he’s not the plug & bringing a firearm inside of a store while “Still Sippin’” featuring Summrs finds the 2 entertainingly linking up to talk about codeine once again. “Forever” admits to the thoughts of this woman keeping him up at night sampling the iconic single by Drake, Eminem, Lil Wayne & Ye just before the self-produced “I Can’t Go 4 Dat” talks about a hoe wanting drunk love.
“So High” wraps up the 1st leg of Get Rich or Die Sippin’ describing the rush he feels whenever he doubles his cup while “Just Me N’ My Cup” kicks off the 2nd half continuing to talk about his love for lean & Perc 10s, the latter of which he calls his favorite drug. “You + Me” hops on top of this blissful pluggnb beat being upfront regarding a chick telling him they’ve been over while “Aye Malice, Where the Bass @?” combines pop rap & pluggnb talking about being outside.
Moving on from there, “Jump Back In” details a scenario where he put everything to the side for someone he liked until she fucked it up & it’s all for her while “Loud” issues a warning to anyone trying to fuck with him that they’ll each wind up in caskets carrying over the plugg elements instrumentally. “All Love” on the other hand talks about having bitches outside of the trap house & doing things legitimately instead of merely doing it for social media reels.
“Red Dot” featuring KanKan joins forces for an outstanding 2-parter where both of them are trading verses keeping that same energy when the beat switches while “5 Star” talks about heading out to a luxurious hotel for the weekend & making his time out there count. The closing track “Finally (The End)” finishes Shine’s most defining material of his career giving it all for this individual to trust him & asking if he can call them back 1 last time.
Unfortunately because of Lil Shine’s being indicted on 5 federal charges last spring, Get Rich or Die Sippin’ has the possibility of becoming the last time we could hear new music from him for a long time & this couldn’t have been a higher note to end on if this is it. The pluggnb, Asian rock, pop rap & plugg production is all tastefully textured & he provides what I’d say ranks amongst the most versatile performances of his career so far joined by a couple high profile guests.
Score: 4.5/5
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