Have you listened to PropaneLV’s new album, Suicide Squeeze yet?
Few Portland rap artists command the sort of attention that Propane seems to keep at his fingertips. Just this weekend, a colleague looking to downplay the rapper’s success said something to the effect of, “He has like a million views, but does he do shows?”
Well let me tell you, Propane is actually approaching FIVE million YouTube views and he has a show TONIGHT downstairs at the Roseleand with Jon Bellion, in what makes for a rather sensical pairing of cinematically inclined crossover artists and a show that even casual fans should thoroughly enjoy.
In addition to the lead single, Too Gone – which has already amassed over 22K video views, Propane and his personal super-producer D. Shuts let Loser and Hometown go early and both tracks have seen a strong following, racking up over 10K views each on Soundcloud. The June leak of Regular still leads the way though with over 23K plays.
There’s no argument that Suicide Squeeze looks great on paper – these guys are doing Seattle numbers in Portland – but we still need to look at the music. Off top, Propane gets a major assist from D. Shuts who consistently provides clean production that compliments his distinct and emotional style. Musically, the album is strong; Propane excels as a writer, flawlessly fitting pitchy verses to borderline pop beats in Drake-like fashion.
Lyrically, Propane is creative and unafraid. Very few bars wowed me, but more than a few made me chuckle. Don’t expect to hear Propane jumping on a battle track anytime soon, this is makeup/breakup music sprinkled with a little turnup. Perfect for whipping and/or entertaining the ladies, there’s a few “last song of the night” type slaps on here.
Give Suicide Squeeze a spin if you haven’t already. In addition to the singles and leaks, I particularly liked Never Sober, Temptations, and Lights. There were no songs that I disliked, and that says a lot to me about these guys’ process. Propane and D. Shuts have their lane; now we just need to see how far they can take it.