DJ Thoro & Big Mike presents Cassidy: Apply Pressure

It’s almost common knowledge that Cassidy is one of the meanest lyricists and punchline predators in the game bar none. From having my man Freeway begging for a beat to flow on in the middle of their battle to having Rosanne Barr and Wanda from In Living Color looking women in the club waving their hotel keys in the air hoping to hook, line and sink in a dude simply starving for sexual healing (They caught my cousin out there feenin’ one night! He don’t regret nothing though. Blame it on the al-al-al-al-al-al-cohol!), Cass seemed bound for hip-hop greatness. It was damn near inevitable. But throw in a few accidents and homicide case and all of a sudden the once destined MC is just a hip-hop commodity these days.

For me it’s hard to believe that heads fiend for the latest Wayne rock joint, but could care less about hearing Cass say something like, “”When I pop the shotty, it got kick but it’s not karate/and when I snap you take shots/I’m like paparazzi…” on “Get That Bread” or “If it’s beef I turn into a barbecue/put the heat to your grill if we beefing for real/I’ll push your wig back like your barber do” off of “Nine Is On Me.” On joints like “Top Notch” and “Apply Pressure,” his metaphors and punchlines had more bite in them than Mike Tyson in the ring and Marv Albert in a hotel room combined. Then throw in his lovely freestyle, “Unexpected” where he ripped down Jigga’s “Where I’m From” instrumental rapping about the rappers he’s into and saying ish like, “You’re on my cock cause I’m on the block moving roosters, man,” and you have yourself something deeper than rap.

At the end of the day, I don’t know if Cass will get the masses he had back ’04 back. In a lot of ways he’s this generation’s (or last I guess) Canibus. He’s a rhyme animal who just never lived up to expectations. For all the mouth-watering bars they feed us to all the tracks they ride, they’re MCs, not necessarily rappers. The voice and flow isn’t versatile enough to mesh with a commercial or R&B track to make those huge crossover hits, so in that sense he is limited with his. While he did spit a rapid paced flow on “Ayy” it just didn’t suit him like Armani on Pat Riley. But I’m not knocking homie cause he does go in hard on his beats with the rhymes and metaphors. And when it’s all said and done that’s what makes Cassidy who he is and as long as he doesn’t try to be someone he’s not, then he’s good money. Just please, no more “anthems” for sex fiends and the sexual predators who try to lure them in. On the “drought” I’m on, I might be next to fall…-The Infamous O

Hottest Joint: “How Real Is This”

Weakest Joint: “Plenty Money”