BIG P "Weed and Wine"-ALBUM RELEASE!
/I recently did one of my favorite interviews so far this year with BIG P! And y’all would never guess what happened…the audio DELETED! But you know at /CW we take lemons and turn them into Kool-Aid Lemonade so without further ado let’s get into this album review of “Weed and Wine” by Big P.
The thing that I love about this album is the symbolism. Bip P creates an outro following each song that helps you understand the morals to the story he so eloquently told on the track. The theme of each outro varies from playful phone calls to Big P’s Seafood and Fries to more serious conversation about mental health, accountability and healthy love. My favorite song is “Ms. P” featuring Ro. J; this is one of those songs that demonstrates the symbolism that I mentioned but also has many elements of southern rap that we really don’t see many Milwaukee artists tap into. This is especially surprising because Big P is a real Milwaukee native, so to see him embody and so effortlessly pull off this southern swag really speaks to how dimensional he is as an artist.
“Never know what you can see, never know what you can be. But one thing fasho, you f--king with Big P bay-bay” (that’s how you say it with a accent, bay bay)
Southern charm isn’t the only thing he tapped into on this album either. “White Lies” has neo-soul elements, the melodic scats throughout the song add peacefulness to what may seem like a harsh message.
“Telling these lies to you knowing that I’m doing wrong. Truth be told I know my wrongs baby. Call a spade a spade that’s just what it is. I put you through this sh-t for what my mother did or didn’t.
Lines like that are frequent as Big P demonstrates his ability to make you groove and hold yourself accountable on the same track. “Wright Way” does the exact same thing in a completely different way. The first two minutes of the song are for you to stand up and vibe, but the last two minutes??? You have to sit down and listen. Not because the lyrics might go over your head, but because within each experience he gives you the best of both worlds. Is that not what we look for in certain songs when we listen to them? You initially just want to feel good but by the end of the song you’ve learned something or taken something away.
“The song may have ended but the melody lingers on.”
“Boyz II Men” was the first song that I heard off the project, featuring his best friend Lik who is also the producer of this project. If this is your first time hearing them together, this is a great introduction to this dynamic duo. The back and forth between Lik and Big P flows smoothly, this is one of the songs that give you an understanding as to why he named this project “Weed and Wine’. If you know you know, but the combination of the two really makes you feel like the smoothest person in the room. And lowkey, I felt like they channeled Bootsy Collins a little bit and I’m here for it.
“Hf” is one of the songs that I paid attention to in particular because throughout the album Big P shows respect to his son’s mom. When I asked him why he does this, he said:
“Honestly I really just wanted to show love. You know we had our son when she was still in college and being that young, you know I made a lot of mistakes. So this was really just like 1)to apologize for everything that I’ve put her through and then 2) just to let her know I’m gonna forever make sure she’s good.”
“Wish It Could Last” is the perfect way to end this whole album. First, this is an ode to UGK’s album “Ridin Dirty”, the last song “Outro”. Big P uses this track to shoutout everybody that had a hand in creating “Weed and Wine” and it’s really a great way to learn things about Big P if you didn’t know him already. He’s a Milwaukee native that was raised by his grandparents and grew up with hoop dreams, turned them into reality, had a kid and made plenty of mistakes along the way. But he also made music; amazing, soul-filled, authentic music. So good that he picked up the mic when he put down the ball. Overall, 10/10. I really think this is a creative body of work that encapsulates the majority of who Big P is as an artist and I truly think this is authentic music.
Interview PART 2 COMING SOON! Check out “Weed and Wine” and let me know what y’all think!
/PEAZY FROM CW