Fire In The Clouds

*Fire in the Clouds* comes to us in the same calendar year we’ve received no less than four separate Curren$y EPs— clearly, the New Orleans native and decade-plus rap veteran has still got plenty to say. This time he’s teamed up with Drupey Beats, a frequent collaborator whose production lends itself to the instrument-heavy, blues-influenced style UGK’s late legend Pimp C famously described as “country-rap tunes.” The friendly-neighborhood-stoner vibe is fully intact here, as is the rapper’s unique ability to set a scene—which he does at the outset of Larry June collab “Pay Scale,” with visions of eating “chicken fried rice in the back of the Phantom” while his brother’s “in the venue still macking the dancers.”