Black Prince - “Foolie” (Feat. Jimmy Dade) (2011)

Virtually anything from Jimmy Dade is notable, so this affectionate homie dedication track with him handling the hook and second verse gets a posting. The beginning synth lead reminds me of a Tears for Fears ballad, but Jimmy’s melodies have more feeling than any reverbed-out-of-the-80s synth pop vocals. This opens up a new dynamic for that barely singing kind of thing he’s got going on. As with most post-Slip-n-Slide beats out of South Florida, his previous bangers were primarily percussion centered, but Jimmy sits well on the overbearing synthesizers of “Foolie”.

Too bad the term “foolie” sounds way too much like “fool” so it is probably not very marketable outside of North Miami.

Jimmy Dade - “Go” (Feat. Nutt) (2011)

Jimmy found a dude with a Goodie Mob-Era Cee-Lo flow in Nutt to break the song in and it worked out magnificently. A couple more machine gun simulated snare rolls and this could essentially be a dance hall riddim from the last decade.

Clearly Jimmy is conscious of when he needs to put effort into a song and when he doesn’t. Sporadically switching up his verse with rapping-to-chanting then back to rapping shows variety in the flow and makes this song more entertaining. Even the rhyme scheme in the second verse is deeper than what I’m accustomed to.