The buzzing L.A. rap group flattens some of its personality with its major-label debut, a mix of party cuts and bland compromises.
The Los Angeles rap group Shoreline Mafia blew up in 2017 with raw, druggy cult hits like “Musty.” In a strange twist of fate, the young quartet’s fledgling career was given a boost when the video for “Codeine Bryant” featured in a Fox 11 Los Angeles news piece that targeted “the codeine craze.” Their local-hero status led to a contract with Atlantic, a stunning rise for a collective with roots in the city’s graffiti scene. To hear group member Ohgeesy tell it, the story is something akin to twee indie teen movie Mid90s: just average teenagers having fun and wasting hours under the shadows of the palm trees. “We was just going stupid,” he told Fader in 2018. “I was tagging, skating. I was into crazy-ass shit—it was fun. Now, I’m not doing nothing unless I get actually paid for it.”
Ohgeesy’s assertion that money is the motivation, with fun relegated to second place, seems to predict the problems that hold back new record Mafia Bidness. The pursuit of a check is obviously a necessity—in rap, it’s venerated—but there’s the feeling here of something beautiful being corrupted. Mafia Bidness is being pitched as Shoreline’s debut album after a series of mixtapes, and there are times when you can sense the commercial compromises. Take “Poe The Drop”: A Future feature makes perfect sense on paper—the group’s magnificent debut tape ShorelineDoThatShit was an out-and-out sizzurp record. But here the collaboration feels perfunctory in the extreme. It’s not that the song is bad, exactly, but Future barely sounds like he’s in the room and the chemistry never catches fire.
Though influenced by Southern lean culture, Shoreline’s music fits neatly into the ratchet music corner of L.A. rap. When it comes together, Mafia Bidness boasts some of the most infectious California rap records of the summer. “Aww Shit” and “Fuck It Up” feature slick keyboard riffs, crisp snares and spotless production that feels heavily indebted to DJ Mustard—the perfect backdrop for the group’s alluring raps and playful punchlines. As usual, the murky voices of Ohgeesy and Fenix Flexin are most prominent throughout the album, with Rob Vicious and Master Kato dropping in and out to help keep things interesting.
The fusing of West and South is most obvious on “How We Do It,” a séance that attempts to resurrect Montell Jordan’s Angeleno anthem “This Is How We Do It” and turn it into a drug song (“The codeine’s here on the west side,” spits Fenix). You can feel an element of hit-chasing to the decision to ride Jordan’s beloved ‘90s classic. But the tweaks to the beat are to the song’s detriment, with a hum coating the bassline adding an unwanted distortion. Needless to say, guest vocalist Wiz Khalifa is a strange taste-making pick in 2020.
Mafia Bidness is stacked with guests, and the chemistry is at its best when L.A. artists come through. The inclusion of a very old Drakeo The Ruler freestyle showcasing his stony delivery may be an attempt to honor the incarcerated star. Later, YG and underrated Maryland rapper Q Da Fool jump on the album’s best experimental moment, “Gangstas and Sippas (Remix).” With long-time Shoreline collaborators Ron-Ron The Producer and AceTheFace’s hiccupping horns summoning the spirit of Missy Elliott, it proves the group can excel outside their established formula.
Thematically, Shoreline stay focused on one topic: women. They’re interested in romance, providing their lovers with material luxuries, and sex. A lot of sex. In Shoreline Mafia’s world, every text message is illicit. They’re probably the most sex-obsessed Californians since Too $hort. Sometimes this one-track mindedness can be a bit dumb: a song titled “Bitches” queasily catalogues the different types of women they claim to come into contact with. More interesting is “Change Ya Life,” produced by Helluva Beats. A sweet hook and heartfelt candor makes way for sinister piano keys and a throbbing beat, making the song at once a hip-hop-R&B crossover single and horror-movie score.
Innovative moments can’t relieve the disappointment that such a lengthy tracklist contains little as dark and sneakily gripping as “Musty” (which, importantly, Shoreline have claimed was recorded in one take) and “Whuss The Deal.” The inclusion of bonus track “Bands”—which featured on the 2018 Rob Vicious showcase Traplantic and includes all four members—just acts as a reminder of how irresistible their music can be, the group fluidly passing the mic to one another, the formula pure. With its flaws, Mafia Bidness is a solid L.A. party record, but no definitive Shoreline Mafia document. In the future, the group should make it their business to stay truer to themselves.
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