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Mood Music is a real phenomenon. No, not the Joe Budden mixtape series. Although his melancholy brand of rap does allude to this actuality. Nonetheless, the idea that music is best served for a particular time, place and mind-frame is common thought. After all, your average hip hop fan more than likely has a favorite artist/playlist for several settings; a night out, late night drive, the gym. In turn, rappers cater their music to what they believe resonates best with their audience.

Well, as we trek through another brisk winter, what kind of music resonates best with the social dystopia that is this time of year? Spring, summer and fall are all backdropped with feel-good hysteria and scenery as those are America’s most profitable periods. However, the post-christmas doom-and-gloom is real. Thus, from January through April we sludge through murky streets mired in snow too dirty to appreciate, yet too cold to melt as we plunge into our seasonal depressions and await a return to the good times.

Enter: Grea8Gawd’s SNOWDAY

As we stew in our mental confinement and realize that our happiness was brought to us by Xerox in four parts without commercial interruptions, we plot an escape. But the best escape is to plunge deeper into our reality. In essence, Grea8Gawd’s SNOWDAY album epitomizes the phrase “Mood Music.” Yet, music is a funny thing. In what other context does it make sense to relate more to what can best be described as a play-by-play for drug dealing. Nonetheless, the upstate, New York native’s raw presence as he weaves through emotions and stages of “the game” throughout SNOWDAY is realer than almost anything else we get this time of year.

You’re not even supposed to see the source anyway. I said it in one of my records, I probably bought 44 birds before I met the plug. Ya’ll don’t need to who I am. What I’m saying is far more important than what I look like.

Album Review

In 14-tracks totaling only 31 minutes, Grea8Gawd embodies the polarizing underworld figure that we’ve come to devour in all forms of entertainment. With his trademark “shiesty” mask and a trunk-full of drawn out soul and jazz samples, he recounts the age-old story of meteoric rise and notoriety to evanescence. Moreover, with hip hop as glamorous as ever, Grea8Gawd capture’s the genre’s true gritty essence with story-telling gems like “Trafficking,” one of the standout tracks in what is described by Roc Marciano as a “cocaine bible.”

When I write it I want you to see it. ‘Cause really all I’m doing is recollecting.

– Grea8Gawd to NYS Music

Moreover, he album’s solemn tone is refreshing and feels appropriate with the harsh winter winds. Not to worry, SNOWDAY isn’t all doom-and-gloom. On “The 3rd Coming” he displays enough boastful exuberance to claim that “If Jesus is the 2nd then Grea8Gawd is the 3rd coming.” However, songs like “Thanks 4 Nothing,” and “Entitled” whose levels of angst, despair and somber-ness are so palpable that they inadvertently bring about empathy and offer perspective.

Theme

After all, imagery on records like “Masuca,” where the drugs boiling in the pot take the form of a woman, ought to resonate with those familiar with the lifestyle, while serving as a warning shot to the novices about how real this all can get. In essence, SNOWDAY is like watching a gangster movie and enjoying the part where everything is going right and they’re all making money. Then when it all goes to hell and you see the cost, you realize you’re happy you never went down that path.

“I can’t tell glorify that drug life without giving them [the kids] the ups and the downs. In that game when you be going so hard, sometimes people forget about their families. They forget about what’s really important.”

– Grea8Gawd to NYS Music

Even so, the album’s potency has reverberating effects for each affected party. For family and foes alike, lessons turn into tent poles to reach. With family issues arising due to the job’s demands. When that happens, money and lavish gifts can’t make up for lost time. While the underlying message of treachery, deceit and despair remains with the listener, just trying to get through winter. On “Entitled,” Grea8Gawd and Hell Rell face the fallout from their time in the streets. With the former agonizingly acknowledging “on my birthday I bought my son a watch, on Father’s Day he never even called to say ‘I love you pop.’”

In that game when you be going so hard, sometimes people forget about their family and what’s really important. With me and my son personally it was a disconnect because I was always there but I feel as though he felt like he had to try to outdo me. But, nah, I did those things so you don’t have to

– Grea8Gawd to NYS Music

All in all, Grea8Gawd is well on his way. Having signed with an underground king in Roc Marciano and with the innate ability to bring his experiences to life bringing some real-ness back to the game.