The Ones: Peewee Longway’s “36”
With artists releasing songs at a fast and furious pace it’s difficult for the average hip-hop head to keep track of it all—no matter how tapped in they are. That’s why we created The Ones, a daily post to highlight the song you need to hear curated by the Levels team. We sort through all the new songs—across all the platforms and subgenres—so you don’t have to. Thank us later.
Peewee Longway - “36”
The Atlanta rap ecosystem is unforgiving. It produces class after class of would-be stars so quickly that guys in their early 20s become veterans and those who don’t graduate to streaming success are remembered primarily as also-rans. Peewee Longway is the latter. Once a Gucci Mane protégé and Young Thug confederate, he has been all but demoted into obscurity, despite being one of the scene’s more original characters. He hasn’t stopped working, though: He’s released nine projects since 2016, three this year, the most recent of which is a collaborative tape with Money Man called Long Money.
The best songs on Long Money often seem to show that Longway still has “it” relative to his clearly lesser partner, like an aging former NBA star dominating competition on court at the local park. But it’s on the standalone track “36” that the rapper is in flashback form. At his finest, Longway is a charmer, the funny little guy with a chip on his shoulder, finding ways to lighten up his criminal escapades; a Joe Pesci figure among Atlanta trap rappers. On “36,” he tumbles around music box synths stringing together absurd images: he’s Off-White Jesus with the drip and his Draco came with titties (they’re double Ds). He’ll turn the trap house into The Trapeze and make his chopper do the bachata. He does his own sound effects, mimicking the mail truck backing up, the digital scale counting, the GT turbo swerving away from the scene. Peewee Longway draws you into a realm he rules, even if only for a few minutes.
Check out previous Ones, and listen to new rap from Peewee Longway and more on our Spotify playlist, Apple Music playlist, and SoundCloud playlist.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
