I was on my way to write a couple of lines on this Tommy Wright III album, when I saw that no one really explained who this guy is and why his tapes need to be listened to. On the internet you read "pioneer", "legend", all these bold titles, and there is no one to explain to you why all this. Almost no one.
Torii MacAdams wrote a treatise on this person around the end of the two thousand and ten, and that is, still today, probably the document with the most information about him. Tommy Wright III was born in South Memphis and grew up between South Memphis and Whitehaven, where he began to frequent criminal ambients and to have his first clashes with the police. At some point around the age of majority, the numbers of schools frequented, arrests and laps around the sun almost coincide.
Meanwhile, he becomes passionate about the local and fervent youth hip-hop scene of the city and in the final years of school, his writing prowess is noted. The young man cultivates it and begins to record the first amateur tapes directly from his bedroom, including "Memphis Massacre", in the early nineties. Emerged and survived in one of the worst, dirtiest and most violent cities in the Country, in the mid-nineties, he founded Street Smart Records and in the same year, he released his first album, "Ashes 2 Ashes, Dust 2 Dust", followed by "Runnin-n-Gunnin". This album and the subsequent "On the Run", personally, represent better than the debut the reason why the tapes of this rapper should be listened to.
It's easily, very easily, one of the best records of the year. 17 tracks, divided into two sections, for a total of 122 minutes of listening. The production, made by Tommy Wright III himself, is lo-fi, melodic and dark, perfect. The MC performs most of the time with a tight, quick rap, dropping violent, dark and criminal verses, there are no frills, no bull****. The whole album is very fluid and flows away quickly. Guests are Princess Loko, Mac-T Dog, 1st Degree, Kingpin, Undacova, Jon Marco, Wild Child, Troublemaker, Project Pimp, Lil Ramsey and Chicken Bone: the latter two have a solo cut, "Catch Up w / Yo Round" and "Killa by Nature", respectively.
In particular, it's necessary to dwell on "Killa by Nature". At the beginning of the two thousand and ten, the skateboard company Shake Junt (the name pays homage to the iconic song of Lil Gin) released a video called “Chicken Bone Nowison”, which plays on the hook of the song. The video is a great success and feeds the urban legend around the figure of Tommy Wright III, mistakenly believed to be the author of the song. The track is performed entirely by his schoolmate, stage name Chicken Bone, who had gone to his bedroom studio to create a song to take to the high school talent show. Tommy Wright takes that short hook and loops it for a hundred times, then Chicken Bone records in one-take a song that can undoubtedly be called classic. The success of the talent show convinces Wright to include it in the album, the same song that in the two thousand and ten years will give him enough notoriety to give him a fan base, get him concerts in major US cities, and slowly remove him from the streets where he had returned to survive, after being released from prison for the umpteenth time.
The "highlights box" is hard to fill, hard to choose, randomly fishing in the tracklist, any choice is excellent. Among the many, "Still Pimpin" deserves a mention: excellent minimal melodic production, the drum falls downtempo, there's an excellent jazzy loop, then Princess Loko, 14 at the time, rips and kills the cut with an unstoppable, smooth, quick, dope flow, delivering one of the finest moments of the season.
Rating: 9/10.
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