Song #78: DJ Khaled feat. Akon, Rick Ross, Lil Boosie, Trick Daddy, Ace Hood, and Plies - "Out Here Grindin'"

 

 Song #78: DJ Khaled feat. Akon, Rick Ross, Lil Boosie, Trick Daddy, Ace Hood, and Plies - "Out Here Grindin'" (2008)

We Global

"I ain't slept in eight days, I could go for eight weeks, ain't nothin' to me 'cause I am the streets!" 

Perhaps some more modern rap fans won't be familiar with this little niche of the contemporary rap game, but for a while, DJ Khaled was one of the most recognized men in the rap game, mainly because he would crank out music, singles, and albums at a rapid-fire pace. The selling point was often times he wasn't the one rapping, for he was just a DJ, and would pair each song he made with sometimes eight or nine different rappers, showcasing all their talents. While I stopped listening to DJ Khaled's music after the 2008 release of We Global, I nevertheless admired his persistency and his desire to feature numerous other rappers on his singles and his albums, shining a spotlight on them and their abilities.

One of the songs I loved from Khaled and company, much more than his biggest hit "We the Best," is "Out Here Grindin'," which had a quiet release in June 2008. Though the song never became a big radio hit, the song was explosive and raw in my mind. There are three different versions of the song, adding some rappers, subtracting some, but my favorite was always the album cut and the music video version, which subtracted the verse of Young Jeezy from the single version. 

The song concerns the gang lifestyle as laid out by Akon in the chorus, talking about how he doesn't care what people say, for he will keep doing the gang life, even if it means sacrificing things like friends and sleep. What entails is rappers Rick Ross, Lil Boosie, Trick Daddy, Ace Hood, and Plies spouting off briskly-paced verses at incredible speeds for the duration of the song. It almost feels like an impromptu rap session featuring these rappers.

What personal impact does the song have on me? Not much, I must say, but I do find "Out Here Grindin'" to not only be one of the most underrated rap songs of the last decade and one of the defining songs of the summer of 2008 when this kind of music was all I listened to. In addition, I find that the song also shows the best qualities of each rapper involved. Akon has his brilliant chorus, Rick Ross has his freestyle-like verse, Plies is brazen as all hell, Lil Boosie has the simultaneously goofy and amusing verse, Ace Hood has the cut-throat lyricism, and Trick Daddy always finds ways to be haunting with his unpredictable lyrical fluidity. Not to mention, the music video for the song is just explosive in the way it uses the seamy side of an urban area as an anthology for its rappers.

Give "Out Here Grindin'" a listen, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKv7dDFpCbk