The South Central Los Angeles rapper AZ Chike has been making reckless, energized underground music for many years, and now he's taking his shot at the mainstream. He got his biggest-ever look a couple of years ago when he traded bars with Kendrick Lamar on Kendrick's song "Peekaboo." Those two had an intriguing chocolate-and-peanut-butter chemistry. I'm already seeing people lamenting the lack of a Kendrick feature on AZ Chike's brand new major-label debut No Rest For The Wicked, but I'm not worried about it. AZ Chike can level up just fine on his own.
Anyway, AZ Chike's not exactly alone. Last month, he teamed up with Tyler, The Creator, who produced and rapped on the excellent single "Look Like My Mama." Tyler also appears, as both guest and producer, on "The World Is Ours," another track from No Rest For The Wicked. The album's only other featured guest is the LA-via-Detroit singer-songwriter JMSN, and the album has some great production from big names like Pharrell, Hit-Boy, Terrace Martin, and Sounwave.
No Rest For The Wicked is being marketed as AZ Chike's debut album, but he's put out plenty of independent full-lengths, so it's more accurate to call it his major-label debut. His early music was full of casually charismatic shit-talk. Here, he goes for something brighter and cleaner, but he's as effortless as ever, even in the rare moments when he gets vulnerable. I just finished my first listen, and I can already tell I'm going to run this one into the ground. Hear it for yourself below.
No Rest For The Wicked is out now on Warner.
