#tricky situation

The existing singles were enough to fill two or three first-rate CDs, yet surprisingly none of them made the new EP Tricky Situation. On “Is Tricky” Mac J explains why he still feels the drive to create music: “I do this shit for Bris, I can’t let up.” But even when he doesn’t mention his friend and partner’s name, Bris’ presence looms over every track. More often Mac J refuses to mourn silently, like on “Gotta Grudge” when he states his feelings openly: “I can’t let it go/ I gotta grudge/ You know they killed my bro/ I gotta buss.”

Despite the obvious charges of anesthetization of violence, Mac J’s songs can’t be easily labeled as vengeance chants. Mortality is a thing we all know or come to know, and the Sacramento rapper has to deal in his lyrics with the immediate reality which itself violently seeps into his music. He’s a master of language, always playing with street lingo. His favorite method is the defamiliarization effect. He reaches for some street slang and puts it into different context, thus creating a surprising effect. By now stale street jargon takes on a new meaning (or rather helps to understand where it comes from). On “Lil Bit” it’s “I think I'm outta shape cause I stretch marks.” On “Gotta Grudge” it’s “I know alphabet / You ain’t no G.” 

Mac J has been playing with the song structure on his singles, now and again discarding the classical verse-chorus-verse scheme. Versatile with both hooks and verses, he could drop a hook and make a hard song with two or three verses only. This approach was a creative reproach to pop rappers who are so hooked on a hook (to use a pun), they forget to write a verse. On Tricky Situation the Sacramento rapper returns to verse-chorus-verse structure, showing no sign that he lost his talent for catchy hook. Nor for good punchlines: “I squeeze in this bitch til it’s no crowd / Like they are out of episodes, it’s a showdown.”

The title Tricky Situation acquires two meanings here. It is not only that Mac J’s position in the streets is unsure. His career path is quite tricky, as he’s squeezed between two approaches to lyrics, with a hook (more poppish) or with no hook (more street). It encapsulates one of the problems of current rap. Hopefully, Mac J will find a way out. He’s good at it.