I’ll be honest: Saigon was introduced to me as and always will be the rapper who let Turtle manage him for two episodes and almost got Drama dropped off a balcony on Entourage. That said, he does kind of bring it for a rapper whose authenticity was unclear in my mind during the glory days of HBO.

The lyrical content isn’t exactly groundbreaking here. “I told niggas once I start they can’t stop, the kid got skill,” he raps on “I Am 4 Real.” However, he spits these type of lines with enough conviction that you feel like he deserves to revel in clichés, having earned the right to join the rap equivalent of “bands cool enough to smash their guitars.” They’re only clichés because they’ve been done properly, after all. The “Ms. Jackson” sample on the track also helps to keep things fresh.

Saigon isn’t exactly the most progressive voice in hip-hop when it comes to the fairer sex either. When he spits “I heard Yeezy and Weezy and Jeezy beat it up” on “Kinky,” you could make the case that he’s (again, not-so-originally) personifying hip-hop as a woman and acknowledging his forebears and influences. But more likely, he just wants to have sex with a girl who’s been with some stars, like some sort of reverse groupie. The skit at the end of the song, however, when the object of Saigon’s affection (again, an actual woman or hip-hop itself?) curses out her non-Saigon male pursuers, is pretty hilarious.

The highlight of the tape is “War And Chaos” and its preceding skit, “WFKR Talk Radio.” On the skit, we hear an interview with “Isaac Whiteington” from “anywhere that ends in –ville or –port,” in which he expresses his contentment with life and excitement to go sailing later that night. The track then skips to “War And Chaos,” set on “the other side of town.” Our narrator Saigon, tells us how he “let the street swallow me so they wouldn’t come get you.” The social commentary here is undeniably on point and hard-hitting, and if there are more tracks like this to come from Saigon, I can’t wait to here them.

3 / 5 bars

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Saigon – I Am 4 Real

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Saigon – Kink

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Saigon – War And Chaos