Plies - "Da Last Real N**** Left 2"

[StevePulaski]

Da Last Real N**** Left 2 (2014)
By: Plies

Rating: ★★½
"Mirror, mirror, mirror on the wall; who's the realest n**** of 'em all?" - Plies, "Big Thangs."

I've long admired Florida-born rapper Plies for his aggressive and brazen style of rap that often admirably, if unevenly, can transcend romantic boundaries. My generation knows him best as the prolific "Shawty" rapper, a song he did with T-Pain, back in 2007 before going on to release three complete albums in just two years, having at least several singles chart and gain airplay from each work. Some of Plies' best work, in my opinion, gained no airplay, like "S*** Bag," the uncommonly mean-spirited anthem off of his sophomore release Definition of Real or "Bruh Bruh," his hilarious and insanely catchy tune off his most recent studio release, Goon Affiliated, in 2010. Even if he often boasts a raw, cut-throat gangsta image, Plies can be a softy at times, with tracks like "Bust it Baby Pt. 2" (featuring Ne-Yo) and "Please Excuse My Hands" (featuring The Dream and Jamie Foxx) coming into play on past studio releases; Plies would often cross his love of street jargon and vulgarity and romance with songs like "Feel Like F*****'," a song quietly reminiscent of Lil Wayne and Static Major's "Lollipop" in that it brings out romance but also a more hardened side that can satisfy both sexes.

After four years with sporadic updates on his fourth album Purple Heart, eleven months without a mixtape, and seldom music releases, Plies returns on the mixtape front to give us Da Last Real N**** Left 2, a sequel to his most recent mixtape in January. As someone who, admittedly, lost touch with Plies after 2010, I have to admit, the title of the mixtape alone made me think little changed about Plies in my hiatus. He still boasts the word "real" in his work (his trilogy of albums are The Real Testament, Definition of Real, and Da REAList for the record), and occupies a sound occasionally referred to "helicopter rap," where one frequently shouts or all-out screams on his or her song.

Thus is Plies, and after a decade in the industry, he has confirmed through many a mixtape and four studio albums that he isn't changing his image. With his latest release, he throws twenty-one new songs at us, making for an overstuffed, but mostly satisfying feast just in time for the Thanksgiving season. The Zaytoven-produced track "Know What I'm Sayin'" opens up the mixtape following the intro in a way that rekindles our familiarity with the rapper's brazen vocals, repetitive choruses, and unabashedly vulgar lyricism. What follows are songs like "Did It Out of Luv," where Plies proclaims in the way he knows best how he takes care of those he loves, "Mad at Myself," a regretful, sorrowful tune about ones frustrations with their own behavior and stigma, "2 Good 4 Me," about a relationship in which Plies' female companion was so far ahead of him in every regard, "Issues," an uproariously funny track about Plies calling out his lady on having some serious problems, "Ain Look Back," which should be every goon's anthem thanks to its lyrics about rejecting the common folk life in exchange for some real excitement, and concludes with "Big Thangs" a tune, like many others, in which you must play loud and when you're in an incorruptibly cheerful and ambitious mood about your future.

Features by Rico Love, Glo Gang's Lil Reese, and August Alsina are a little odd, but somewhat expected to be, as Plies' brazenness has a hard time meshing with other singers' styles, regardless if the track is catering to a gangsta rap or an R&B sound. Nonetheless, this is an entertaining effort, if one can look past the seriously awful patches, like the agonizing listen that is "Blue Hunda," with its mind-numbing repetition (coming from someone who, again, loved "Bruh Bruh") or the lackluster "Daddy," which feels like a mediocre rendition of the rapper's superb song "Family Straight."

All the components of Plies are present on Da Last Real N**** Left 2, and despite it being an overstuffed and infrequently underwritten package, the fun had here is hearing Plies basically raise his middle finger in the air to the naysayers by creating a lengthy mixtape of what he does best.

Recommended tracks (in order): "Big Thangs," "Mad at Myself," "Issues," "Ain Look Back," "2 Good 4 Me," and "Did It Out of Luv."