Gritty City's own Fan Ran and NDEFRU has released a well-timed album called Richmond Gas to celebrate the legalization of weed in Virginia. It is a twelve-track album that really brings some of the city's established and underrated faces all together to deliver all the smoke. Most of the tracks feature NDEFRU and Fan Ran spitting bars on wax.
The way to describe their music is within their name: GRITTY. The sound of the project definitely reminds me of the "Cap City" days where Richmond was in and out of the top ten most dangerous cities list all throughout the 2000s. Even the cover art itself does so much justice with an animated map of the city of Richmond with emphasis on The Fan (a part of the West End of Richmond, VA where the roads separate when you leave downtown in a fan shape). It includes the forever legendary venue Strange Matter (which closed in 2018, R.I.P.) except it says "Strange Lives Matter" because the city features so many different unorthodox characters.
The tracklist with the gritty version of McGruff the Crime Dog features Noah-O, the Richmond Phillipino rapper who has been featured on Sway In The Morning and Shade 45 radio, multiple time RVA Rap Elite Cypher Champion Vintage A, Gritty City's own Johnny Ciggs, and more emcees. Some of my favorite tracks on the project would have to be Illegal Soul, Jet Fuel, The Fashion (which covers Richmond's faults in legal matters, how they handle people who use weed, and how rappers put on for the Rich City) and Stretch. Richmond Gas is filled with weed references, talks of overcoming adversity, interesting interludes of using drugs, most notably Gas, and living in the now.
When you order the project on Bandcamp, you can get it digitally or on cassette tape. In the words of Billy Mays, BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE. There's a bundle package available where you can get a Richmond Gas themed four piece grinder, an 18x24 print of the album cover, and the cassette tape itself. This is definitely an album to blast while rolling one up or enjoying an edible. You can follow the artists on Instagram @fanranfilms and @themostdebonair . Follow them on Twitter too @fanranfilms and @themostdebonair .
Written by: Jay Guevara. @justinhisprime on all social media.