The Ones: Trippie Redd’s “Mac 10” [ft. Lil Duke & Lil Baby]
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.
Trippie Redd - “Mac 10” [ft. Lil Duke & Lil Baby]
Scarface has been a symbol in rap for almost the genre’s entire lifespan. From Nas sniffing coke and holding an M-16 like him in “NY State of Mind,” to Kanye’s “Devil in a New Dress” digs (“The crib Scarface, could it be more Tony?”), the iconography of Al Pacino’s classic drug lord is resonant across hip-hop. Trippie Redd channels the character again on the shootout happy “Mac 10,” enlisting Lil Baby and Lil Duke for more mayhem.
Trippie Redd fires off a few rounds and then leaves the rest to his guests, who follow his lead and take aim in the song’s only verses. They likely aren’t anyone’s ideal team, but they work surprisingly well over heralding Wheezy horns, taking turns invoking kingpin excess and extravagant violence. Duke breaks into a Thug-esque whine as he fortifies himself from the lap of luxury, in a penthouse atop a pile of money. He’s bracingly curt (“You cannot trap with no pistol”), blasé yet war ready. But it’s Lil Baby— who Trippie Redd allegedly woke up out of a deep slumber just to punch in—that makes the most of the song with a slippery flow chock-full of understatedly clever raps about gunplay. “We walk down with them sticks like we drill masters/Got them MACs in the range, we gon’ kill Casper,” he raps, one of the most visual bars of his career. Between the three of them on “Mac 10,” there’s enough firepower to take on all comers.
Check out previous Ones, and listen to new rap from Trippie Redd and more on our Spotify playlist, Apple Music playlist, and SoundCloud playlist.
Originally Appeared on Pitchfork
