Ya Boy

Ya Boy: On Fire
Ya Boy: Turf 2 Tha Club
Ya Boy f/ Clyde Carson: Fly As This

While the bay hype machine is still grindin (see: just about any blog right now) and on the eve of the drop of his yay-ness's breakthrough album, maybe we should talk about 40's cousin, Ya Boy.

(On the real, Abbot and Costello jokes abound, and finding a pic for this post was annoying).

Someone put me on to a few of his tracks a couple months ago and they were cool, but what really caught my attention was hearing his verse on "The Deal" with the rest of the Done Deal Fam on Slump and Grind 2. Ya Boy doesn't really test limits with his lyrics, but he's got that finely tuned precision flow and those great one-liners that put him way above most other emcees. It's not even the one-liners that are great, but more than he actually has the charisma to pull off some stupid ass lines like "you niggas stay frontin, yall broke/I get ice dumped on me like a football coach." His album, Rookie of the Year, is front to back shit-talking, not in the T.I. tradition of "I worked so hard I know I'm the best," but just uncut arrogance. And, yeah, his crack talk is unbelievable and played out, but so much so it almost doesn't matter.

Beats provided by some unknowns but also your standard share of Rick Rock and flute-driven Droop-E hyphy goodness. King Cydal comes out of nowhere with crazy beats on "On Fire," "Turf 2 Tha Club" and another one. Smooth-ass Clyde Carson from The Team guests on "Fly As This," 40 himself and San Quinn show up elsewhere. Enjoy Ya Boy (ayo!) and impress your friends with some slightly off-the-map bay shit.