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Nipsey Hussle returns with Bino Rideaux on PROLIFIC, the one-time as shelved collaboration that now comes after nearly of a decade in the vault. The album is built around several concepts: ambition, survival, loyalty and success.
PROLIFIC captures these Los Angeles artists at different stages of the same climb upward. Nip, born Ermias Asghedom, was already building All Money In into a movement while Rideaux represented a younger generation coming behind him. They had already released a mixtape together before recording this full length project in 2017.
They tragically, Nipsey Hussle died in 2019, leaving the music behind. The duo make for an interesting pairing with different ideologies.
On “Sacrifices,” where Nipsey warns, “Don’t fall in love with no hustler, you know that come with conditions…Love ain’t ‘posed to be prison.” On “Reckless,” Rideaux says, “Off a pill, I ain’t got it in me trying to tell a lie.”
“500 Horses” Hussle declares, “My success was symbolic/My finesse was iconic/How I glowed up out the darkness.” The point, ironically is, luxury never completely escapes the streets surrounding it.
Interestingly, Cardi B offers one of the album’s best guest appearances on “I Just Wanna Know.” Cardi asks Nip, “Could a Crip nigga f#ck with a Blood b####,” then asks, “Would you hit still if I was a bum b#tch?” Ty Dolla $ign and Leon Thomas also make worthy contributions.
“Count On You” represents the emotional center of the album. The Marathon Man drops the armor with, “Family broken, so I stand with my n#ggas/Showed up to every shootout, but I ran from my feeling / Heart broken like my artery missing.”
Rideaux answers, “Pray my son never face what I go through…I been tryna relate with some of these songs in case I die today.”
On “Situations” Nip shifts between money and menace. On “All Summer” Rideaux admits, “I don’t know if I’ma wake up in the morning…I can’t lose no more, my nigga, I can’t afford it.” That anxiety s prolific.
PROLIFIC. There are so many metaphors. Nipsey had the word tatted on his face. At a moment, it felt as though he was arriving, however that past was on his heels. And yet, this amazing artist never disappears like energy. Nearly a decade after these recordings were made, Hussle and Rideaux sound like two men traveling the same Los Angeles roads, understanding the destination was never guaranteed.
And yet, somehow they made it.
