mixtape maestro (2.0)

Freeway’s last studio effort, 2007′s under-performing Free At Last, may have felt like it dropped eons ago in hip hop’s time, but the Philly-born bearded wonder has still managed to keep his name, and unmistakable voice, out there, flooding the web with numerous mixtape/ freestyle projects. Last month, he kept the rap blog circuit afire with his Month of Madness song spree, which found him releasing a new track every day for the whole of December (download the entire thing here).

Here’s two of Maestro’s favorites:

Get ready to start longing for the days of Roc-A-Fella’s reign once the smooth soul sample of “I Can Deal With It” coats the ears. Lain atop a seducing rise-and-fall strings-and-horn backdrop and snippets of some anonymous soul vixen moaning “I think I can handle it” (supplied by beatmaker Blunt), a surprisingly calmer Freeway tries his best to simply lead a peaceful existence and keep his paper stack high but the constant threat of haters coming from every which way keeps such a life nearly impossible. “They dyin’ to try me,” he sighs against the buttery groove, before opting on hitting them with “every (lyrical?) bullet from this tech I peel”.

DL: “I Can Deal With It” (alt)

For “Doing Anything”, Free joins Lil’ Rob and…erm, Swiffer, in keeping that damn “Baby Come Back” song stuck in our heads.

“Anything” might sample the apparently deathless, 1977 smooth rock hit by Player, but beyond briefly relating his attempts to woo a second grade hottie back in the day, there’s not much Valentine’s Day mushiness to be found here. Instead, that elementary school-set almost-love story is used as one of many examples of Freeway doing “anything” to make sure every goal he sets for himself ends in success, whether that’s being the flyest-dressed cat on the block or staying one step ahead of his mic competition.

DL: “Doing Anything” (alt)