So you want to be a gangster, boy ?

Then listen to the real deal : Tommy Wright III, Memphis, Tennessee.
In a majestic album, T.W. III shows the finger to most of the industry’s poseurs and glamour gangsta rappers. Forget about polished rhymes, feelgood beats and samples, this is hard and underground music for real men.

Cowbells, saturated drums, lo-fi microphone.

Now what a better introduction to this 61 minutes long album than track n° 03 : Meet Yo Maker.
Intro straight out of your auntie’s late afternoon TV show, aggressive and brain whacking cowbell solo and lyrics that instill doom and terror in your mind, all the art of Tommy Wright is encapsulated in this gem, and if you can’t really appreciate it, well, I’m a bit sad for what you’re missing out.

Displaying a more subdued and low profile aesthetic, track n° 10 : Screet Type Nigga sends us to the dark and dangerous streets of a modern metropolis, all track long we feel on guard, tracked by obscure enemies there is something threatening and uneasing in this song, thanks in great part to the lo-fi and powerful instrumental.

And if that’s not enough, take track n°11 : Comin For The 94 . Think you can make a song with a broken police siren ? Tommy can. And the result is striking, in no small part due to the aggressive rapping by Princess Loko.

Master storyteller

Don’t believe me ? Or maybe you don’t appreciate direct death threats and electronic cowbells, especially mixed together. Well, know that apart from strong and memorable instrumentals, Ashes 2 Ashes, Dust 2 Dust is also a display of expert storytelling.

The epic track n° 14 : Wargames Phase I is a perfect case study of what makes rap the most lyrically engaging form of music.

Sure, it’s not the glamour and fashionable story of a high class gangster, nor the bravado of a drug kingpin. It’s a true gangster story, a gangster driving around in his leather-seated Cadillac, pulling out his MAC-10 on his adversaries. Forget about flowery forms, it’s straight to the point,

Wargames Phase I, Tommy Wright III

I yelled “the streets ain´t big enough for both of us
Somebody’s going down and I know that it’s not us”

Most tracks of the album have a cinematic quality to them, not being distracted by fancy or funky samples or choruses, the listener can focus on the true gangster stories that slowly unveil in this album.

It is said that the album Illmatic by Nas is a picture of New York from the 1990s, well I say that Ashes 2 Ashes, Dust 2 Dust is a picture of real gangsters from the pre-Y2K times.
Most lyrical references have a realistic tone, here don’t wait for Bentleys or top-model girlfriends, it’s the true gang life, with sawed-off shotguns, .38s and rivals burned in garbage cans.