I’ve said this before about Chicago rapper Joey Purp and I’ll say it again: You could put all of his Savemoney colleagues in a room, make them freestyle and it’s Purp who’s going to have the most impressive verse. Since the 22-year-old artist named Joseph Davis came onto the scene with his debut 2012 project, “The Purple Tape,” every guest verse and every rhyme (check his Dally Auston collab “Do Ya Thang” and his mixtape-stealing turn on “Surf” highlight “Go”) has shown he’s arguably the most technically proficient rapper of the bunch. Yes, better than Chance the Rapper and better than Vic Mensa.
But as Purp will tell you, being just a great technical rapper isn’t the same thing as being a fully realized artist. While his previous projects, including his fun and loose collaboration with rapper Kami as Leather Corduroys in “Season,” were some of their respective years’ best, they were exciting for their promise rather than for being an all-encompassing artist statement. “iiiDrops,” Purp’s long-teased and just-released mixtape, is that promise realized. It’s the project that shows why Purp should never have been counted out as his friends, such as Chance, Vic and Towkio, shot up in fame. It’s a project so good it practically guarantees he never will be counted out.
“iiiDrops” opens with “Morning Sex,” boasting horn-laden production from OddCouple that evokes “The College Dropout”-era Kanye West. There, the vintage ‘Ye feel doesn’t let up as Purp adds supremely resonant emotional nuance to wrenching lines like “look in the mirror and see myself in my mama’s eyes/If you knew what I’ve seen you’ll be traumatized.” He’s “been on both sides of the burner,” a lifelong resident of many Chicago neighborhoods. He’s seen trauma, death and joy.
Like Chance dealt with his city’s violence on “Paranoia,” so too does Joey with the same tact. On mixtape highlight “Cornerstore,” the city’s most resonant protest song so far this year, he raps: “Chiraq look like the Middle East/And white kids deal with problems that we never knew to bother/Arguing with they dads, we pray we ever knew our fathers’.” He juxtaposes that with the childhood nostalgia of getting Chicago food-delicacy “flamin’ hots and cheese from out the cornerstore” and finding a gun when he was just looking for his remote control car charger. It’s innocence lost, a tragically relatable sentiment for so many young African-American children in this city. In 4 minutes and with Saba’s gut-punch of a verse, it’s more important than all of Spike Lee’s “Chi-Raq.”
On the other side of the spectrum, Purp also produces two of the hottest party bangers of 2016. There’s “Photobooth,” which hot damn has the best beat of 2016 from “Smoke Break” producer Garren, whose bass-heavy elephant horn-screech goes so incredibly hard. There’s also “Girls @,” which has a Neptunes-indebted kick drum intro and an insanely fun series of verse-trading by Purp and Chance. With Chance’s verse, he accomplishes something I never thought to hear by rhyming “Ta-Nehisi Coates” with “Spottie-Ottie-Dope.” It’s brilliant. Along with that verse, all the guests complement rather than distract from the overall project. Mick Jenkins finds an intriguing upper-register, a departure from his ice-cold flow, on “Money and Bitches,” and Vic Mensa’s turn on highlight “Winners Circle” makes me insanely excited for whenever he drops “Traffic.”
Purp’s always been a no-nonsense kind of artist. When he impressed with his debut, he later said he wasn’t that serious about music when he made it. While that might have seemed shocking at the time, he’s been improving with every single thing he’s released since then. Even though he first teased “iiiDrops” in 2013, after listening to this project, it’s clear the wait was worth it. For both us and Purp.
Listen to the whole project here.
3.5 stars (out of four)
Live: Friday, June 10, at Metro.
@joshhterry | jterry@redeyechicago.com
