Rap Blog: Rich Amiri finds his pocket

Rap Blog is a weekly showcase of a standout rap song.

Though Rich Amiri is often dismissed as just another Future soundalike, the hate can feel a little forced. After all, when your breakout single gets as big as "ONE CALL" did, reaching the same peak again is more daunting than the haters labeling you a "one hit wonder" will ever give you credit for. His new album War Ready continues to burrow into prototypical rage rap, but where collaborator OsamaSon (he contributes two verses to this album) pushes rage into a bigger, more distorted direction a la Ken Carson, Rich Amiri leans towards the subgenre's more laidback melodicism, deploying a rich baritone to expansive effect. The beats still bring plenty of boom, but they're not so spiky, more easily digestible.

Built around a burbling synthline, "THATS IT" is smoother and hookier than many of the bombastic tracks on War Ready. His lilting vocals cause couplets like "Good gas my lungs, my lungs / I ain't goin' for none, for none," to stick in your head; when he croons, "Ridin' round with my pole tucked, I don't wanna have to showww ya," he sounds genuinely coy. And while his flows aren't particularly agile, his workmanlike focus on staying in the pocket makes those small flourishes in his melodies and rhythms all the more enjoyable, like when his bars accelerate just so: "Totin' on a dirty chrome put it to his dome I'ma let the K bust!"