Main Attrakionz

Bossalinis & Fooliyones

BY Peter MarrackPublished Oct 23, 2012

8
Mondre and Squadda B of Main Attrakionz present their best work to date with Bossalinis & Fooliyones, even with its ironically funny cover art. The big booty chick and old school Impala are more indicative of a lifestyle they grew up watching on BET than their actual day-to-day. Underground rappers tend to smoke, write, rap, record, smoke, tour and then repeat, which is clear by their songs. Squadda raps on "Wings": "I can only tell the same story so many times, I'm in the booth feeling like I spit the same-ass line." It's a strikingly conscious response to critics like Phonte Coleman, who recently tweeted: "Somewhere, a nigga is trynna figure out how to stretch the six months he spent sellin' weed in undergrad over the course of a whole rap career." "On Tour" is a delightfully soulful sample of the Average White Band, crafted by Uptown Greg. Mondre and Squadda continue with this lifestyle-of-the-underground-rapper theme, rapping about the king-shit feeling you get when you touch down in an airplane ― you blow your hard-earned bucks and then hit the studio to restart the cycle. There are some obvious improvements on Bossalinis & Fooliyones that we've only heard in bits and pieces on tracks like "Take 1/Leaf," with A$AP Rocky. Mondre and Squadda have crafted some great hooks ("Cloud Body," "Bury Me A Millionaire"), along with soundscapes that draw less from the textbook of SpaceGhostPurrp and more from their own ― turns out the duo appreciate classical piano. Lyrically, Mondre and Squadda complement each other rather nicely. Mondre's easy-going bars balance Squadda's exceedingly desperate drawls. Of course, it doesn't hurt to enlist Harry Fraud, Zaytoven and Ammbush for background noise. Bossalinis & Fooliyones is a taut, humble and profoundly aware medley of late afternoon joy ― the best time to listen to it. But it does raise questions about the authenticity of programs like 106 & Park, with its big booty hoes and dubs.
(Young One)

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