Curren$y, Weekend at Burnie’s

For someone who smokes so much weed, Curren$y (yes, I will be spelling it this way) has managed to be quite productive — the New Orleans native has pushed out four official albums and three mixtapes in two years. For many, this tremendous pace lends itself to mediocrity, a kind of quantity-over-quality mentality that sometimes plagues the hip-hop world. Somehow (let’s be honest: it’s probably the weed), Curren$y has managed to maintain a relatively high standard. With his latest release — which I’m sure will be his second-latest release by the time this is published — Weekend at Burnie’s, Curren$y brings us on yet another smoke-filled journey.

It’s only a matter of time before Curren$y’s brand of burnout music loses its novelty; luckily, Weekend at Burnie’s narrowly avoids that mark. Lyrically, Curren$y has yet to descend into the nonsensical laziness that peppers other burnout rappers. That said, Weekend at Burnie’s unfortunately only manages to be good, not great. Take the high-rolling “You See It,” in which Curren$y boasts, “Them haters tryna deplete my shine like Venetian blinds / But sun do what the sun do, rise,” or “What’s What,” a poorly-planned manual on how to cheat on your boyfriend that features, “Your homie tryna do a little bit more for ya ma / So it would behoove you if you play it cool / Fake quality time with dude, laugh at his jokes cause he far from broke.”

None of these lyrics inspire a sense of awe or fundamentally change the general perception that Curren$y is an extremely talented but slightly single-minded emcee. Most, if not all, lyrics teeter on the edge of stylish-but-conventional. The same feeling of routine is heard in tracks produced by Monsta Beatz. It’s hard to find any major faults in the beats, but Curren$y’s lyrics overlay rhythms that are a bit slow and too at-ease; you’ll nod your head, but your mind tends to wander. Compare that to the effort by Ski Beatz in Pilot Talk, which features an array of musical influences and a production swagger that vaulted the album from a good album into a classic.

Maybe the hip-hop community has been spoiled by Curren$y’s previous outings, namely Pilot Talk and This Ain’t No Mixtape. While it’s not up there with its siblings, Weekend at Burnie’s is by no means a terrible album; in fact, if this was your first experience with Curren$y, it’s easy to think of Weekend at Burnie’s as a great album. When you’ve pushed out successful album after successful album, however, it’s easy to see why Curren$y is content with keeping the ball rolling. Part of me wishes he took a few chances and rolled the dice just a bit more.