Dave East Kairi Chanel
Released: September 30th, 2016
Must Listen: Don’t Shoot
Dave East has been one of New York’s brightest spots for a minute now, and all of his potential came together on his latest project Kairi Chanel. Dave East has a solid catalog, but Kairi Chanel is the mixtape that now has him in everybody’s ears. A co-sign from Nas comes with a lot, especially high expectations for what one can do lyrically. He raps circles around the competition throughout the tape, displaying why Nas put him on in the first place.
Kairi Chanel is 15 tracks, and there’s a number of highlights on the tape. The intro “It Was Written” is him paying homage to Nas and he drops bars 4 minutes letting us know what’s in store on the rest of the tape. He mixes his Harlem grit with 2 Chainz down south swag on the track “Can’t Ignore” where they both get off and have great verses, even though Tity Boi may have slighted him just a bit. He makes one of the greater prison dedications in recent history with “Sending My Love” and he shows of his great lyrical chops with the gritty New York tracks “30 N*ggaz” and “Don Pablo.”
East gets especially in his bag on “Keisha” where he tells the story of being set up and robbed by a pretty woman, and again shows why Nas is the one who introduced him to the game. The best song is undoubtedly the track “Don’t Shoot” though. Here’s why: Most rappers who take a shot at making an anthem highlighting police brutality fail because it’s not something you want to continually listen to. Dave East’s “Don’t Shoot” defies that rule. His version is extremely introspective and he takes a different approach than anyone has. He starts of the track detailing his earliest run in’s with the police as a young kid, and there’s an effect that makes his voice high to match that timeline.
His voice gets a little deeper and now he’s detailing his run in’s with the police as a teenager. The last phase is him as a rapper and his voice is completely normal, and that’s where the gems lie. “They follow every car I try to ride in/I’m just hoping this ain’t the car that I die in/I guess with this hoodie on i’m a murderer/I’m just tryna buy my mother some new furniture.” At the end of the song he dies at the hand of the NYPD, and with that Kairi Chanel is one song from being over and Dave East solidifies himself as the future of New York Rap.