No, I hadn’t heard about this shit until it showed up on my doorstep. I’ve got friends who are all about that Purple City shit, and I’ve heard some of their work in the mixtape circuit, so I figured I’d give it a listen.

So for those of you who don’t know about Purple City, I’d suggest you go read up or something, and then come back. Or if you couldn’t care less about their history it’s all good. I read on some site forever ago that they were working on some “international concept album” called Paris to Purple City, and I guess this is the first single off of that. Anyway, here we go.

Rap is All Around the World:

This title concerns me. This is the kind of track title that all those “true b-boy/b-girl” types would go apeshit over. You know the type - the backpackers in the back of the Starbucks that only recently stopped listening to Dashboard Confessional in favor of Common because somebody clued them into the fact that rap is inherently superior to emo. I saw some girl today wearing a “My Heart Belongs to Hip-Hop” shirt, and she was so obviously non-hip-hop that I had to physically restrain myself from punching her fucking face in.

I digress. On to the record.

Okay, I know Agallah “The Don” Bishop, and Un Kasa, but there’s a whole bunch of other motherfuckers on here with names like Tibesse, Djelass, Keny, Kris Daddy, and Kipetchi. Who are they? My guess is that these are the French dudes that the Bird Gang linked up with for this record. I don’t know how big they are in France, so if anyone wants to illuminate, or elaborate, or something, feel free in the comments section.

So the beat is pretty decent. Kinda standard Agallah fare, just a sample-flip of some old somewhat orchestral soul type joint with some kicks, hats, and cymbals. The the Don gets on this one and sounds aight, and then here come the fucking French dudes.

The first one sounds okay. The second one starts singing in some bootleg reggae fashion, and then either the first one or a new third dude comes on, and I can’t tell what he’s saying, but I do know that he threw a big “BLADAK!! BLADAKK! BLADAKK!” in there, which to me means “get the fuck down because somebody is shooting”, but maybe in French that is some sort of witty comment about the price of croissants or something.

And forreal, look at all the names up there! This is the problem with rap in languages that I don’t understand. This could be the biggest, hardest posse cut in the history of rap music, and I can’t even fucking tell, because they all sound similar. And I bet you $10 that PCP doesn’t understand what the fuck is going on either. For all they know, these Parisan motherfuckers are calling them dickwads, and they will never, ever know.

That’s not to say, though, that they don’t sound good. Homeboy with the verse after Kasa’s, which, again, could be the exact same person that had the first verse, has a pretty engaging flow. Overall, it’s a good song. I think PCP managed to throw some politics in there somewhere, maybe I’ll catch it on a second listen, which this is definitely worth.

The French Connection

Again, this title bothers me, mainly because of those kids that think that fcuk is the new hotness. Man the fuck up, dummies, and just wear a shirt that says “FUCK” on it. Come on. Don’t punk out on me. On to the track.

DIPSETT!!! Sorry. Jim Jones is gracing this one, and we’ve got the same dudes from last time- the Don, Un Kasa, Tibesse, Djelass, Keny, and Kris Daddy.

“Oui Oui, motherfuckers”. Hahahaha.

This is pretty much the same kind of shit you would expect to hear on a Purple City mixtape. Jim Jones has probably the best bars, but then again, the French dudes could be all great and shit but I can’t understand them. The subject matter is totally unchanged. They are still shooting people and doing the piff thing, but this time they’re doing it in front of the Eiffel Tower.

I had read somewhere that this was mainly a project of the Parisans, not the Purple City squad. But PC is totally fucking dominating this track - the Francophones are just kinda featured.

The beat on this one is also fairly good. Some of that more ominous shit, in the vein of some of Agallah’s harder mixtape material.

Yeah, if you’re into that whole Dipset/Purple City movement, or if you are French or even understand French, you’ll probably like this release. We’ll see what the album is like, but so far it looks okay. ACCEPTED.

It’s supposed to hit stores on the 8th of November, so yeah.