Casey Veggies is ready for graduation and hip-hop greatness

words: swagrporters

You’ve been putting in work trying to get put on for years. Then it finally happens. You ink a deal for your first record and you go to work in the lab. You go about telling the world just who you are

To any fan of hip hop, there is no feeling like seeing a young MC achieve his dreams and sharing the ride with them. Rappers have shared this journey with their listeners time and time again. When Biggie opens Juicy with a dedication to the ones that doubted, the listener spends the rest of track celebrating B.I.G. doing his thing. When J. Cole dropped the Warm Up he paid homage to a few of Jay’s famous tracks and repped his new Roc Nation crew after receiving Jay-Z’s first deal on the label. These rappers both, through their respective coming out albums, established their brand in the game.

Inglewood rapper, Casey Veggies, came out the gate hot. Like he dropped his first mixtape,Customized Greatly Vol. 1, at age 14 hot. A hard-working and alternative lyricist out of LA, Veggies made a natural fit in the Odd Future crew, who seemed determine to redefine the young and emerging LA rap scene in the mid to late 2000’s. However, shortly after the release of The Odd Future Tape, Casey left the crew to pursue a direction of his own.

In contrast to the gritty sound of LA’s youth culture pervasive in the Odd Future sound, Veggies’ first album on Roc Nation opens with a soulful story of realizing you’re about to be on. "Life Changes", sharing its namesake with the album, features Casey Veggies declaring “took a couple chances, now life is gorgeous” as the up-tempo jazz beat drops.

The narrative he goes on to share is one split between disbelief and pride for the feeling of reaching one’s dreams.

Witness the young buck step out of the shadows and shout “What up?” to the World.

The remaining tracks on the album explore subject matter of his LA scene. The chase of love and money as a young man in America. Amen.

These stories are set to smooth, melodic soul beats at times featuring hi-hats and jazz ensembles. The combination makes so much sense. Maybe not peanut butter and jelly status, but Casey’s silk threaded lines and delivery melt over the beats in perfect harmony.

Looking back, the decision to leave the talented and passionate Odd Future crew just as they were starting to gain street notoriety was likely a difficult one. But Casey knew the style he brought in his rhymes and he knew the story he wanted to tell. He knew he had to take the chance and, as he claims in track Young Winners, do it his way.

Life Changes is the coming out of Casey Veggies; his platform to formally introduce himself to the game. His conversational style, reminiscent of the man who signed him to Roc Nation, tells the story of a young man in America trying to come up. There is no doubt in this writer’s mind that these passionate and soulful rhymes will go a long way towards further defining the new era of LA sound. Preach.

As the beat rides out on the last track of the album a saxophone carries a note over piano keys. I can’t help but think, “Why don’t more rappers let the beat ride?”