Chances are high, somebody in your life is a Larry June fan.
He’s not a Billboard commanding artist, however has comfortably discovered a distinct segment as a laid-back health-conscious stoner, get-money-and-better-yourself sort rapper that was as soon as stuffed by Curren$y after which Dom Kennedy. Every new June monitor conjures photos of that dude you observe on Instagram who gained’t shut up about how a lot water he drinks, or that coworker who solely buys frozen meals from Dealer Joe’s, or your stoner good friend who substituted THC concentrates instead of blunts as a result of “they’re dangerous for you.”.
June makes music for rap followers who consider they’re on the next non secular degree, and his system works. His new album with producer Cardo Received Wings, The Night time Shift, follows this system; typically, consistency is king.
Larry June will not be the primary braggadocious rapper and absolutely gained’t be the final, however his boasts are packaged in a singular means that different rappers not often can pull off. If rappers like Payroll Giovanni and Babyface Ray make you need to exit and get cash by the use of embarrassment and disgrace, June makes lux residing sound so interesting you abruptly get the itch to ship a couple of additional job functions out. He not often calls others broke and doesn’t lament his opponents; by means of penthouse imagery, natural smoothies, lovely girls, and biking the hills of San Francisco on a sunny afternoon, June effortlessly pulls you into his world. His calls of staying match and consuming the “inexperienced juice” sound seducing, like he’s making an attempt to indoctrinate you into a very wholesome cult.
It’s a rigorously cultivated picture he’s developed over his final decade-plus within the rap trade. June’s all the time been proficient, however in the event you look past the movie grain album artwork of old-fashioned vehicles, his first two Cali Grown initiatives within the early 2010s sound like they have been made by a special particular person. By 2015, he started to develop his standalone ethos as rap’s resident life coach together with his single “Got here A Lengthy Approach.”
As his identification started to materialize, June went on a run in 2019, releasing seven full-length initiatives and a handful of EPs, each one in all them constant and chock filled with his iconic advert libs (like “Good job, Larry!” and “God rattling!”, for instance.) The middling rapper trying to find his sound lastly discovered one thing signature, batting a excessive common.
On The Night time Shift, June’s second album this yr with a legendary producer (in April, he launched The Nice Escape with The Alchemist), he provides simply sufficient new wrinkles to maintain his sound attention-grabbing.
June nonetheless raps about girls, biking, and smoothies (even interpolating the opening two bars from his personal 2019 music “Tracy, CA” on “Stickin’ and Movin’”), however with some additional financial thrives. When you don’t consider his tried-and-true system of rapp works, The Night time Shift is a testomony on the contrary; since 2019, the old fashioned Beamers have change into McLarens, the limos have morphed into personal jets, and the Kenzo sweaters have switched into Celine pants.
chunk of the album’s uniqueness is discovered within the manufacturing from Cardo Received Wings, who, very similar to June himself, is thought for sticking to his personal confirmed system of G-Funk impressed basslines, sober drums and piercing snares — appeals to the cool breeze of the Pacific Coast HIghway.
On The Night time Shift, although, whereas Cardo’s beats nonetheless ring true to his singular fashion, they take the type of deeper and darker grooves. His signature bounce offers solution to extra textured melodies and the atmospheric high quality of a smoked-out jazz lounge; purples and blues exchange the yellows and oranges of his common sound. “Clocked In”, the album opener, is silky and heat, like Muzak that precedes an innocuous dentist appointment. “Chops on the Blade” is a trepid and vaguely paranoid ensemble of sounds behind anxiety-addled raps from June, the closest verses he’s ever rapped to 2016’s “007”. “GRGP” on the again half of the album has mushy horns within the again that sound like a yelping cat in a road struggle, complimented by raps from California legend Too $hort and Peezy dashing to get his brags, all the time a half beat behind the shrewd drums.
It’s additionally a great instance of the way to effortlessly meld laid-back raps with R&B expertise; two of the album’s greatest moments come from options, with DeJ Loaf’s hook on “Candy Girl” and Blxst’s verse on “With out You.”
Larry June is at his greatest when he sticks to his dependable recipe, compounding a couple of new ideas with every successive venture. The Night time Shift is June persevering with his development and evolution as an artist, nonetheless incremental it could be.
