Harlem rapper Vado has transformed himself from Cam'ron's unwelcome new sidekick to a mini prince of NYC goon-rap (with 2010's Slime Flu and last year's Gunz n' Butta) to, currently, That New York Guy Who Isn't Uncle Murda or French Montana-- all in the space of, oh, about a year and a half. In case you were wondering, yes, New York is still a brutal, bewildering, dizzying place to try and make it as a rapper, and yes, keeping up with rap nowadays is still basically a full-time job.
That said, I've had more fun listening to Vado (that's Violence and Drugs Only, if you're curious) in the past two years than I have almost anyone else. He's funnier than French Montana and a much better rapper than Murda. Most of the fun stems from the sheer, bellowing-gasbag sound of Vado's voice, which cuts through basically anything you put in front of it. He's a whoopee cushion of infectious ignorance, and he has a class clown's way with ensuring his remarks travel all the way to the front of the room. But he's also a crafty rapper, and his latest mixtape, Slime Flu 2, delivers exactly what the original Slime Flu did-- high-speed, tightly realized, pugilistic goon rap-- to nearly as entertaining results.
If it suffers at all, it's largely because it feels and sounds too rushed-out, perhaps in an attempt to re-spark Vado's fast-cooling buzz. He should have kept the album in production for a few more minutes-- even for a free rap mixtape, the mastering is atrocious. The beats knock, but even with headphones, they seem to be bumping through a neighbor's wall, and Vado's voice often sounds distractingly disembodied in the mix. This is odd and regrettable, since the first Slime Flu banged loud and clear wherever you played it, but there is still lots to enjoy. Top honors goes to Vado's "inspiration" joint, "I See You (Black People)", which surely deserves an award for mind-blowing use of a song-title parenthetical. The song, built on a sepia-tinted piano loop and hand percussion, all but dims the lights and burns the incense, but apart from a single Obama namedrop, Vado's not having it: "Didn't notice, recession happened when?"
This irrepressible goofiness is the key to Vado's charm. Give him a beat, any beat, and he'll bludgeon his way through it like Yosemite Sam, shooting in all directions. On "Slime Anthem", he reinforces his loose Diplomats affiliation by putting together a blatant homage to "Dipset (Santana's Town)", and his eyeball-rattling shouting is a dead ringer for Juelz Santana's. But his crisp way with words also allows him to kick gnarled, writerly raps alongside a mumbling Raekwon on the very Raekwonishly titled "Bed Piss" without ever sounding young or out of his depth. He can kick funny, credible game to ladies when he feels like it without turning syrupy or abandoning his rap style, just like his mentor Cam'ron (who, by the way, Vado kept from the stage this time) on "Louis V. Bag" and "All the Drama". There are a couple of fun surprises, too: freestyles over "Ms. Fat Booty" (he calls it "Ms. Slime Booty", which he should have maybe rethought) and the plush beat from Kingdom Come's "The Prelude", one of that album's few salvageable numbers.
Absolutely none of this is earth-shaking, nor does it carry that burning sense of now that keeps the frenetic pulse of street-rap moving forward. But Vado will be okay; New York may devour its own, but if he can keep putting out solid projects like this one once or twice a year, he can count on a small, local-hero following. Maybe there's a Lloyd Banks-style "Beamer, Benz or Bentley" surprise hit for dude four or five years down the line. It would make me happy to see. Every city needs a solid B-team.
