Driveway Dreamers - TRP [album submission]

If ya’ll still don't believe that the cloth of Hip-Hop has found its place in the Milwaukee culture by now then y'all are trippiiiiin….This year was a great year for music and I’m not even talking about what's going on mainstream. I’m talkin about the locals, the underground, the underdogs; I’m talkin about Milwaukee. Once again another head-nodder for the books. Local artists Big P and his right hand man, producer and fellow rap artist Lik, as TRP (The Roses Prevail), dropped their debut album Driveway Dreamers  and the city’s influence is definitely strong. Milwaukee is all up and through there from the song titles referencing landmarks and different moments in time that we as Milwaukeeans are oh so familiar with, to the lingo and the accent coming through clear with every skit. On what, TRP came to represent! The intro, “Milwaukee Mall,” contradicts the grunge and grit that is seen as the aesthetic of Milwaukee rap with the repetition of the words “...But I dream in color, muthafucka…” after describing the typical scenery of an everyday walk through the hood, symbolic of how we all must look beyond what we see. The following and first official track, “White Dookies,” beautifully samples the instrumental to Sade’s “Cherish The Day” and just as Sade’s music already does for many of us, Lik gives us all of the nostalgia, going in on the first verse; “...Stuntin like a east nigga, but I’m ‘norf’ side like the speed queen feast, niggas paid the fee, been grinding since little league...way back I was t-timid with the speech, now I’m speaking what I mean, every word be a seed...” a feeling straight from most of our memories. Big P ends the song with a chant that we all can relate to “....All White Dookies with no crease my nigga, back when we was eating Tastee Twists for dinner….fresh white dookies in the top of the winter… ” Fast forwarding to the 7th track, the interlude, “Summerfest,” is a track for the lovers. This track is led by the beautiful vocals of a woman who describes what her love is and what it can do. Although Big P and Lik’s vocals are left off of this track, their intention is still felt. With this song we are taken back to our teenage years of Summerfest dates with our sweet hearts while also possibly being metaphorically reminded of how much we grew to be in love with our city as we got to know it with every summer day and night that was spent away from home on an adventure with the crew; “I remember when I used to get fly for you, used to throw on them new ‘95’s for you, used to smoke a little tree, coast the sky for you...cause you make me feel like way back, when mama used to drop us right off where the gate at and when you walked in and everybody waved back, I said I'm here to see ‘Ye, where the stage at?” 

Tell me how YOU feel about “Driveway Dreamers” Milwaukee. 

/Naomi-Re’a for CW