Every Los and Nutty mixtape ascribes to the logic of Dick Wolf-produced television procedurals: You pretty much know what you’re getting every time you click play, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The more familiar you are with the Detroit siblings’ stories of dope deals and brotherly love, the more oddly comforting their underworld sagas are. Often, their hustling chronicles are centered around the less glamorous details, the ones they usually blow by in the movies. You know, the backbreaking work necessary to make the drudgery pay off. Sleepless nights on the highway. Opening up shop in a new town and then closing it in search of greener pastures.
The difference between their new project LOS X NUTTY and mixtapes of the past is the intensity. On 2020’s Panagnl4e, Vol. 2, for instance, their hellish tales of wiretaps and pit stops at motels were so vivid, it felt as if they were happening in real time. Meanwhile, LOS X NUTTY is a bit more removed; you can picture the brothers sitting on the couch in their childhood home, exchanging anecdotes and reliving the old days.
The beats are a big element of the trips down memory lane; this time around, many of them are softer and smoother. They are tailor-made for jolts of nostalgia, like the gruff-voiced Los reminiscing about the rush of a high-speed chase on “Won’t Get It,” while the vocal sample gently blooms in the background. An understated funk groove is the foundation of “I Thought 10 Was Enough”; over it, Nutty, the feistier of the two, recounts memories of snapping photos with stacks of money with the wistfulness of a former high school football star looking back at the state championship game. When it’s less evocative, the lighter touch is a drag. Nutty loses some of his punchiness on “Washin My Hands,” so much so that I zoned out by the time featured guest Samuel Shabazz jumped in. “The Reason” is replete with life lessons that aren’t really that special, though they probably would have been more compelling if the dewy-eyed instrumental didn’t sound like it came from the camp of Complex’s 2023 rapper of the year.
But Los and Nutty don’t stray that far from the formula that works for them; a handful of the tracks do end up capturing the grueling spirit of the Panagnl4e trilogy. None reach the heights of those mixtapes, but they’re still reliably dramatic. Take “Extorted,” which has the duo trading nerve-wracking verses over wailing sirens and barking police dogs. The pair pull out some cool tricks to give the tape extra juice; for one, Nutty sounds real inspired by the N.W.A. homage on the intro. And Los doesn’t typically rap on a beat as breezy as “Los 2 Hot,” yet the tongue-in-cheek particulars he includes in his bars only sound right coming from him: “White people even at the truck stops love me.” He also revives Lil Onion—a cartoonishly high-pitched, high-strung character he introduced on his 2021 tape G, Shit Vol. 2. It’s unexpected and a little funny, the kind of idea that cleverly redraws the blueprint they hold so close.
