Tee Grizzley, Detroit native and a major driver of the Michigan rap aesthetics that now run rampant, is set to release his fourth studio album. As the release nears closer & closer, he nabbed one of the splashiest features an artist can, enlisting J Cole for the project’s final single. Here’s everything you need to know about what Tee Grizzley & J Cole accomplish with “Blow For Blow.”
J Cole Continues Another Prime Feature Run With “Blow For Blow”
To begin on a general note, what continues to make these J Cole appearances so compelling is how he’s been able to bridge the gap between meticulous lyric writing and accessibility. Whether the backpack side of hip-hop is your speed or not, often the Achilles heel of “true hip-hop” fare is over-technicality. Multisyllabic rhyme schemes and the like are certainly impressive on their own merits, but without a sense of rhythm and melody, they can frequently fall short of replayability, or in the worst cases, listenability.
Given those pitfalls, it’s all the more impressive that the Dreamville head is able to “go pop” without sacrificing that scientific approach. The J Cole performance on “Blow for Blow” is a perfect example. Bouncing between schemes with true intention and pace, he weaves a myriad of quotables, including, “I sip orange juice in the VIP, watchin’ the clock tick / Perform a couple of hits and then I dip / Six figures richer than when I entered.”
Yet Tee Grizzley Nears That Very High Bar
To be sure, “Blow for Blow” is still a Tee Grizzley production first and foremost, and his work here shouldn’t be understated. While it’d be hard to match Jermaine’s dexterous pen, the Detroit native does wonders in embracing the current wave of his hometown, beginning his verse with Michigan’s trademark off-tempo cadence.
While it begins in familiar territory, his section picks up in intensity and compelling-ness as it progresses, launching from your typical “rags to riches” fare into detailed, ground-level descriptions of that process: “Can’t be on the court, NBA coach’ll take my game away / Catch you on that freeway, we reenacting Training Day.” As the final head of the hydra here, Pi’erre Bourne is characteristically impressive behind the boards, and his presence notches another major name in Cole’s genuinely industry-leading Rolodex.
Post Traumatic, the next Tee Grizzley album and the project “Blow For Blow” with J Cole comes from, releases on October 4th. In the meantime, catch the new single wherever you stream your music.
Elsewhere in our coverage, with Red Velvet – Cosmic, the K-pop quartet excels once again.
