Wale teams with Texas rhymers Yella Beezy and Maxo Kream for the relentless new single “Down South.” The nostalgic track is built around the DC rhymer’s dexterous wordplay, a distorted violin sample from a Houston classic, and the guest stars’ ferocious verses.

“Down South” looks back to some of Southern rap’s most memorable hits, repurposing a sample of Mike Jones’ “Still Tippin’” while interpolating UGK’s Master P and Fiend-assisted “Slangin.” Wale uses this canvas to dispel glamorous images of street life as he spits about the downsides of life as a trapper: “In the ’90s, a traffic stop get you tickets, a joke/Now they find you at traffic stops you get riddled with holes.”Beezy and Maxo take a street-level approach to, the former evoking pure menace and the latter oscillating between aggression and reflection. Maxo concludes his verse with a chilling observation: “Ever since my bro got killed, I can’t trust shit, I can’t trust nothing/Can’t even trust my Crips, because a Crip killed Nipsey Hussle.” 

Stream here: https://wale.lnk.to/downsouth