OJ Da Juiceman has gotten a bad rap in the wake of a mainstream-career-stalling-freestyle on BET. But maybe he was never meant to be spitting freestyles over Swizz instrumentals on tracks with Jadakiss. He is a stronger performer in comfortable territory, as on his Asylum debut. He's the kind of rapper who, in the '90s, might have gone gold regionally without ever bothering the pop charts—a distinctive, charismatic trap-rapper. When he's in the right environment he can make some solid music, as on his single with Spice 1 from last year, "AK Loaded." This year, on another strong collaboration, he joined San Antonio rapper Shame Gutta for "Birds." Shame Gutta is a promising rapper himself, and here, he switches into an impressive double-time flow halfway through. The track is from a mixtape originally released on iTunes, a good move for getting paid but also one that saw the song unfairly ignored by the blogosphere.
Download: Shame Gutta f. OJ Da Juiceman, "Birds" (via The Fixx.)
