Jamison Jones

At 17, normal kids would only worry about their crush and that test on Wednesday. But for Nettspend, that is the least of his worries. As soon as his iconic “drankdrankdrank” snippet video went viral just over a year ago, he’s only thinking about what’s next in his career. The Richmond rapper just released his major debut mixtape which has a title that is too cool for school, and even with help from producer Ok, it isn’t a groundbreaking release.
Starting off with “Growing Up,” we get a smooth ambient melody with clicky, heavy drum samples. Nett uses his signature warbling vocals and sings about his weird childhood, and about how he doesn’t want to grow up at all. Me too, Nett. It’s funny how most teenagers want to skip childhood and fast-forward straight to being an adult, but not Nettspend. Despite most of the tape being barely tolerable, this is a theme that I can appreciate.
Moving on to track three, “Project Pat” is actually a sneak peek into how unserious Nettspend and his team were when making this mixtape. On one of the opening bars he raps, “Just touched down in the ‘Raq, need to hit up Project Pat,” and the thing about this line is that the “‘Raq” is a nickname for Chicago, and Project Pat, a core member of Three 6 Mafia, is from Memphis. I can’t tell if Nettspend actually thought Pat was from Chicago, or it was just a trick to get people to talk about the song. Anyway, this song boasts a powerful string melody on top of distorted 808s. I can definitely see a TDF influence with this beat due to the sounds Ok picked.
A top song of mine from this mixtape is track seven, “Cancer,” because it sounds like a 2010s trap/R&B song, like a Fetty Wap deep cut or an experimental Young Thug song. Nett’s vocals on this aren’t too bad either, because the flow he is using isn’t too spaced out and his delivery doesn’t sound like the AutoTune is trying super hard to get every note right.
“Beach leak” gives us a break from the hard trap beats and has Surf Gang producer EVILGIANE cook up a Jersey Club anthem. I feel like the lyrics on this track were actually an upgrade from the rest of the tape, with Nettspend rapping “Surf Gang at the beach, it’s so much weed, I broke the leaf/I feel like Future, but Gen Z, put some molly in them teeths,” and it may not be on 2Pac or Kendrick Lamar’s level, but it’s definitely more than just saying what he’s doing. While this is a good step forward, Nett still does need to work on his lyrical ability (Coming from a fan of this type of music.)
The twelfth track, “Drop The Blunt” finds Nett flexing how he isn’t in no honor roll, but is in a Rolls. The fast synths and the huge wall of pads trade the spotlight every eight bars while the minimalistic drums rock out through the whole track. The problem I have with this track is Nettspend’s voice keeps cracking every once in a while, and I can tell the AutoTune doesn’t like it. It sticks out and leaves you thinking about it for a minute.
Nettspend is definitely an odd case in the rap game. A lot of people really only let him blow up for the joke, and it got way too far. And also, his music before he got mainstream attention was subpar, just like this tape. But I believe every artist can improve, no matter what genre or what legacy they have held.