hiphoplives

Maino has been bubbling on the underground mixtape scene for a long time now, and has been involved in more beef than butchers. He’s a Brooklyn rapper, so I guess it kinda comes with the territory. His famous beef with Lil Cease over the Lil Kim case catapulted Maino to the fore front of the gossip blogs, and recently he’s had folks buzzin again after slapping Yung Berg at an Atlanta nightclub. And if you still don’t buy Maino’s persona as a Brooklyn bad man, he’s got a buck fifty scar on his right jaw.

But we are talking about music right, not street shit. So do the sounds live up to all the hype? I think so. I’ll save my final judgement for after his debut album drops next month called If Tomorrow Comes (I’ve been burned by BK’s mixtape heros before), but based off of what I’ve heard, he’s definately got skills and song writing ability. “Hi Hater” was THE single of the summer in my book. It was embraced by all kinds of Hip Hop fans as a fun song with an old school sounding beat and message we can all get behind, stop hating on people just because they are successful.

And to provide further proof, you can access his many mixtapes and get a sample of his style over industry and original tracks. He’s released several Hustle Hard mixtapes, but the most recent is called Maino is the Future. His rhymes are usually exactly what you would expect, street tales and rough bragging, but at the same time he knows that the life he has led has been treacherous.  On some songs he actually cautions against the street life. “I’m not a role model, don’t look up to me, I’m not the kind of person you should ever wanna be.”

The mix is definitely worth the download, and as long as you don’t take offense to his subject matter, you should be able to ride to it this fall and gear up for his album. So while there will never be another Biggie, at least his neighborhood is still putting out MCs to carry on his legacy.

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