GMD Jets - 2SMV (Mixtape REVIEW)
What up one & all. Sky Bento here on the check-in once again. Big Bento Energy is most definitely in full effect. Hope you & yours are doing good & well. Drinking water, protecting your mental health, knowing the vibes & all.
Now those of you who know me from this review wave know that I really love to see artists really express themselves in bigger and better ways. Those of you who know my 8PAST article series where I spotlight different artists from my hometown should already be familiar with this man by the name of GMD Jets. So I’m pretty sure you can guess where this is going, if you didn’t already read the title. We back at it again with another review. I’m gonna rip the band-aid off now - yes I have the pleasure of knowing Jets personally. However that has little to no baring on how the music makes me feel. I wasn’t going to give this one a full review, but I was happy to see how The Biggest Bro leveled up his content this time around. This is his second mixtape, and there is an EP in between. Jets is developing a discography, and this project is a great showing of the potential that discography holds. So I’m going to do this review a little bit different, and I’m going to take this opportunity to show you why I think GMD Jets is capable of a classic rap album because that’s how I felt listening to this project. So let’s get right into it.
This is GMD Jets’ highly anticipated sequel to his 2019 debut. This is 2SMV.
1. Smvvtro - This is called an aesthetic. The wave sounds. The wavy synth chords. The nostalgic sounding soundbites. It and the title set you up to think this is just going to be one long wavy ride. Smooth sailing right?
2. Grace - Wrong. This epic classic Jay-Z type beat comes in and tells you there’s going to be some hard times. This is the first instance of what exactly smooth sailing means to GMD Jets. There’s rough times always. You level up and the problems get bigger. Right when you think you above where you was, a storm comes through and humbles you. Watching family battle addiction will do that. “Make them wish they had my back when I was down and needed help because I’m up now.” That beat drops with some real pain and passion in it. Flexes all throughout let you know like he said, despite the downs he’s up now. It should be smooth sailing from here on out right? That damn guitar is super MBDTF vibes and really puts an aggressive edge to the soul of the outro. New Bedford legend Tuki reprises his role from the first tape and introduces the rest of the tape. It’s the details for real.
3. Lesson Learned - These beats really bring me back to the early 2000’s. The Meek Mill inspiration in the production is super clear. This the first joint that showed me something unique about Jets’ style. He often doesn’t rhyme different words, he repeats the same last word in a different sentence. “Never thought I’d see the day I put your face on a shirt, things change. I’m 11, Thanksgiving the day that my life changed.” In the hands of somebody who can’t actually rap this would hold a performance back, but this proves that Jets is a true MC because it never feels like a crutch. It feels like he’s caught in the moment, the emotion, the pain. It’s something small that comes up a few times throughout the tape, enough that I’d consider it part of Jets’ signature style. It’s pretty unique for a rapper who clearly considers himself a lyricist and has that East Coast rapper foundation. “Mumble rappers” were called out for this left and right in that whole generational gap of an era. I think why it became so widely accepted is because it sounds like the artist is reflecting and really pushes the feeling being conveyed. This whole record is about reflecting, and you could say the whole tape is.
4. The Glove - “Counting money, skipping class, that was better math.” This is another bar-fest. We on track 4 and only one joint has had a hook so far. But the project doesn’t suffer at all for it because Jets prioritizing making you feel every bar. There’s hella quotables on this joint and it’s pretty short. Doesn’t overstay its welcome at all.
5. Life I Chose (featuring BTG Buckz) - Switching it up now, we have a more mainstream-sounding record. The melodies on this one are very dope. Buckz being the first feature on the project is fitting considered the pair’s chemistry. Buckz, like Jets, has been steadily improving. He shows off his range, barely keeping the same melody for more than one bar but it’s Jets showing off his vocals on the hook that steal the show for me. The repetitive nature of Jets’ melody gives the hook more of an anchor but the two compliment each other really well for this reason. Jets doesn’t have the vocal range that Buckz has but more than makes up for it in delivery. He does that thing where he rhymes the same word a lot in his verse and shows exactly why he makes that work so well with the pain in his melody.
6. Money Clip [Interlude] - This transition so fire I wish it was just the end of the last song. I love stuff like this on projects, this is how you do a interlude. Usually I feel like interludes come before songs to give them more substance or texture bu ending “Life I Chose” like this was a great idea. You can hear Jets very obviously just messing around, which adds to the feel of the life he chose actually working out for him. You gotta dig it.
7. 100 Plays (featuring Nappy L & Veeze) - Jets brings us back to the sound that made him hot. He made a name off an East Coast take on Michigan type beats (that has found legs in a number of artists from our hometown). What really made him ill at it, was rapping alongside the originators of the sound and holding his own by doing his own thing. Again, no hook on this joint but with verses like these and this kind of beat you really don’t need it. “I can’t see you because my pupils look like dollar signs” Veeze really snapped on the back end. Then Tuki comes back in looking for some money bro promised him. Sad story. Happens all too often though.
8. Say Sumn (featuring Greedy P) - Now I was in the room when Jets & Greedy made this and that has no impact on how much I love this song. This might be my favorite joint on the tape. The back and forth hook between the two is easily the best hook on the whole tape, since it doesn’t have much competition to begin with. But even if it did it wouldn’t matter. This one just bangs. Greedy’s “Put my soul/sole in it” even serves as a double entendre to go with Jets talking about his sneaks and P talking about putting his “foot inside the bowl with it”. The chemistry here is undeniable. Jets is a rapper but he plays the autotune very well especially with someone to bounce off of. P another one to watch, he really laced this whole feature. This the autotune equivalent of Jadakiss & Styles P on the end of the verse too.
9. 42 Wavy (featuring RMC Mike & YN Jay) - Jets back in the trenches on this one. RIP Andrew “42” McCann. You’ve got to respect how often Jets puts on for him. Drinking game: take a shot every time Jets shouts out 42. RMC Mike does his thing but YN Jay’s 30 second contribution is everything great about Michigan rap. From the cadence to the ad libs and mistakes. It’s clearly a freestyle, and he clearly doesn’t care what anybody thinks about it. It’s punk rock energy in rap form. “How I’m cheating if I told you I got h•es texting?” Crazy. Then Tuki’s back still looking for his bread. Can’t help but wonder if he ever got it.
10. Back N Forth (featuring GMD Guapo, Skizzyboy & Swaggy Perk) - We really going back and forth between Michigan rap and the autotuned pain joints. I feel like they could’ve been sequenced differently on a classic album, but again Jets brings the best out of his features. Going back and forth with these three is a great concept. The chemistry is really there. The voices get higher and higher until Jets comes in and brings the melodies to a new place. “Say bro, punch me back in.” The energy of records like this on this project are really dope and I feel like with the right producer to bring a bunch of records like these all together we could really have a new kind of classic rap album on our hands.
11. Broken Hearted (featuring Yung Quapo & Swaggy Perk) - Free Quap til it’s backwards. He snapped on this feature. There’s real pain in this record but it’s a lot more tame melodically compared to the other records. “I’m in Houston with a rocket like Whitney, who f•ckin’ with me?” is a bar and a half though. But it’s at this point where you realize Jets really loves features. In the context of the project, he’s eating with his guys. It started with some strong solo bar-heavy joints with a lot of pain, to some more melodic joints with a lot of pain, mixed in with some fun Michigan type of joints. He’s up now and got his guys with him, you’ve got to respect it. You always got to respect it. He’s the Biggest Bro.
12. Homesick - Jets loves his bros. Being so far away from home is hard on the soul, so it’s good to hear Jets started to wrap up the project with a record dedicated to the city. Especially since it started to focused on his family. It’s also dope that he got them melodies off in an anthemic way. This sounds more like a homecoming celebration than an actual sadness over not being home. And then he actually spazzes on the verse, really getting some quick flows off. The bass is gooey and oozes soul. It’s just a good time altogether.
13. Reflection - Reflection. Such a fitting way to wrap up a project like this. Stylistically, he throws it back to the beginning of the project. And it does feel like a reflection. Feels like it started as a dream and now he’s really out here rapping, looking down on the clouds from a throne. Jets could rap, that much is obvious. It’s hard to review these types of joints he does so well because he really just be snapping and you got to hear it to really appreciate it. “B•tches trying to kiss me in the club, like it’s a mistletoe. Never let ‘em get me though…”
14. Left Me Out (featuring Caliph) - Okay so little disclaimer. Jets said in a recent interview that this record with Caliph is actually from 2017. That doesn’t hold it back, but it does feel like a bonus track. Or at least that’s how I felt until I let it finish. Because it wraps the project up a lot better than it feels from onset. Good music lasts I guess. I love that Jets got melodic with no tune and transitions in a fun way into Liph. Shout out to Caliph man he’s underrated. His hook of a verse ends the project in a way that feels like a ribbon on a gift. It’s already wrapped up but now it looks a little cleaner. The beat smooth as hell too, then of course Tuki comes through one final time. It’s just a great sendoff to a great tape.
So that’s 2SMV by GMD Jets. A great followup to his debut, and definitely his best project thus far. This one is packed with feeling and just diverse enough to not get boring. He definitely has his own unique spin on a couple of popular sounds. No matter the record he always feels like himself and while he’s not rapping circles around the goats just yet, you’d be hard pressed to say he can’t rap his ass off. The pain, the fly sh•t, the nights in the club, the blunts to forget the trauma, the life choices, it all comes together to make the man that created this project and it all gets shine here. Who knows where he goes from here? With the potential on display throughout this project, I can only hope it’s up.
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