You know when you listen to a rapper and you don’t think much of him, and then one or two songs come about from that same rapper and your opinion starts to sway a little bit? That happened with me when I heard Dave East’s Summer Sixteen remix, and he shredded it something fierce.

Between his Hate Me Now EP & his many ‘Eastmixes’ there’s a reason why Nas gave him the stamp of approval, not necessarily because he reps the home team, that being New York City. Part of my reasoning for not paying full attention to Dave East is because of the lack of consistently good lyricists from New York. Joey Badass fell off my radar, Troy Ave was allowed to happen, Action Bronson is dope in his own right, but his last album did nothing for me, and Asap Rocky (and the rest of the Mob) are here and there, but nothing concrete that makes you stand up and say “alright, this is New York like I know.” And due to the evolution in Rap, there are new influences that come about, so the substance takes a hit, and that’s the key thing I didn’t think Dave had a lot of when I first listened to him – substance. Do you have anything that I care to hear? At the time? No, not really. But he has surely put in his work and has thus been recognized for it, and where he’s not trash (at all), he definitely has an acquired taste from time to time, since most of his content can be repetitive. He reminds me of Nipsey Hussle, but an East Coast version with a more versatile flow. He always comes through with energy, but I guess I’m more interested in what he could grow into as an artist.

See what you think about him, because I’m sure his name will come up in conversations moving forward this year.

That’s My Word & It STiXX