Don Q
Loso Loaded
A1
Nun Balla
S.U. The Clique
Drewskii Doe
Wednesday September 13th
Grab tickets here: http://ticketf.ly/2vbzNGD
ALL AGES
Corner Stories, the new mixtape from the Bronx rapper Don Q, has a sort of Greek chorus running all through it: an unnamed interviewer who keeps showing up, asking Don Q questions in-between songs. Toward the end of the tape, the interviewer mentions what an exciting time this is, saying that Don Q seems poised for a real breakthrough. He mentions a few artists when they were at supposedly similar places in their careers: 50 Cent when he made 50 Cent Is The Future, Wiz Khalifa when he made Kush & Orange Juice, Drake when he made So Far Gone. When an artist insists that his album is a classic before it even comes out — or when his album features a proxy saying more or less the same thing — it’s never a good sign. But in this case, I can see what the guy is saying, even if he didn’t name the closest precedent for Corner Stories. Don Q, as a rapper, has very little in common with 50 or Wiz or Drake, and he doesn’t have anything like the commercial upsides that those guys always showed. He’s a little closer to someone else, someone who bubbled up organically to become a star. The Don Q of Corner Stories reminds me of the Kevin Gates who made The Luca Brasi Story in 2013. And that’s a very good thing.
