Hip-hop heads claim “regional-sounding” rap is officially back. In the mainstream, many would agree Kendrick Lamar’s album GNX is at the forefront of this revival. While that point is debated among fans, Lamar’s West Coast friends are following his lead.
On Christmas Day (December 25), Tyler The Creator put his hometown pride on full display with a surprise freestyle drop, “That Guy.” On the track, which flips Kendrick Lamar’s “Hey Now,” Tyler puts on for his stomping grounds — Hawthorne, California.
“I was up at Westchester / Dodging all the high beams / Gardena swap meet / Shopping bogus ice cream / I’m a Hawthorne baby / Sh*t is not warm baby,” he raps, shouting out other Southwestern Los Angeles area hot spots.
In the video, similar to Kendrick’s “Squabble Up,” Tyler takes fans around his neck of the woods. From popular meet ups to signature roads or highways, Tyler is as he yells, “A Hawthorne baby.”
Throughout Tyler’s recent chart-topping project Chromakopia, he paid homage to cultural staples in the African American community. This love was quickly reciprocated when Jackson State’s Sonic Boom of the South band performed an arrangement of his song, “Sticky.”
Watch Tyler’s video for “That Guy” above.
Chromakopia is out now via Columbia Records. Find more information here.
