“Why isn’t Pilot Talk on Spotify?” was a question that Curren$y and Spotify both had to answer somewhat regularly, as it was a source of frustration for those of us with ears and internet connections and too much free time to think about indie rap releases.
While each of the three Pilot Talks were available for streaming at some point or another, they were never a mainstay on any platform, and would appear briefly on one site or another before disappearing again. The gap in releases was due to some combination of seeming uninterest on Curren$y’s part, the demands of other projects, and a sticky legal situation with Dash’s DD172 over the rights to the first two projects once Curren$y inked a deal with Warner Bros. But the third installment - which featured a surprisingly great Riff Raff verse, I know - didn’t materialize until nearly five years later in April 2015. You knew exactly what you were getting with the Pilot Talk series: Curren$y saying every cool thing ever over lush, woozy, spaced-out production, occasionally with a few high (heh) powered guests. It was another skit-free 40 minutes of tight rapping about cars that are out of production, obscure daytime television references, weed, money, women, and women Curren$y can’t trust with said weed or money. It worked so well that they did it again on Pilot Talk II just months later. He then found his way to Cash Money, where he rapped with Lil Wayne about Mac-11s and snub noses and other things he wouldn’t really rap about once he went independent in late 2007. That was his wish, and eight years, countless projects’ worth of free music, and two for-sale ones into his career, I’d say he’s earned the right to enjoy it.Ĭurren$y’s career began in 2002 when he signed with Master P during the fall of the No Limit empire, patching in as a fringe member of the 504 Boyz. And fresh-squeezed lemonade, not that Minute Maid crap.
His ideal quality of life involves gray Polo sweats, a yellow gold Rolex, ample amounts of weed, being able to watch Layer Cake as many times as he wants, not having to think twice about buying parts to retrofit his small fleet of old model cars, and never having to look at factory-variant Jordans again.
#Curren$y pilot talk trilogy plus#
These matter-of-fact bars, plus the video in which Curren$y walks around on the beach in Chucks burning down his second joint of the day, are simultaneously Spitta’s ethos and selling point: rapping really well about life’s small pleasures, and aggressively not doing things he doesn’t feel like doing. The beat was practically begging for a chronicling of someone’s perfect day, and so Curren$y rapped over it about whiling away an afternoon eating Zapp’s chips and playing 2K: In 2010, however, Mos played the role of producer on Curren$y’s Pilot Talk album alongside the legendary Ski Beatz - who crafted towering classics like “Dead Presidents” and “Who You Wit” for Jay Z, as well as most of Uptown Saturday Night for Camp Lo - and Mos strung together jangling samba guitars and lolling horns to make this gorgeous song that sounded like when orange juice meets champagne. “Breakfast” was made by Curren$y, a rapper from New Orleans, and Mos Def, a rapper who used to be from Brooklyn but is now a global citizen with universe brain named Yasiin Bey who has transcended both people orientation and international politics as well as the need to rap, sort of.
I always find my way back to that strip and Hobbes’s fulfillment in tiny joys when explaining the draw of a song called “Breakfast” and, indeed, the guy who was responsible for crafting it. The final panel depicts Hobbes eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the kitchen, saying, “I got my wish.” Calvin, upset at his imaginary friend’s lack of vision, says he’d ask for a “trillion billion dollars,” and his own private continent. In one of my favorite Calvin and Hobbes comic strips, Calvin asks Hobbes what he’d wish for if he could have anything in the world at that moment, and Hobbes says he’d like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.