DECONTRUCTING ALFIE – Get To Know: Curren$y

Get To Know: Curren$y

Curren$y

Shante Anthony Franklin, better known as Curren$y, is a rising talent in Hip Hop whose name I’m yet to hear mentioned this side of the Atlantic; though I do expect to hear his name a lot more in the not-so-distant future. This guy has been on my radar for a minute, and has consistently gotten better with each project.

Although on the scene since 2002, Curren$y has moved from label to label in his young career. Starting out under Master P’s guidance at No Limit, then moving to Lil Wayne’s Young Money Ent. in 2005, and leaving two years later to join up with Amalgam Digital who facilitate the distribution of his joint venture, Fly Society (which started out as just a clothing line, but evolved into a record label as well), with friend and pro skateboarder Terry Kennedy.

Curren$y has a fresh deal with Warner Bros. Records, but it’s not stopping him from releasing free music. The former Young Money Records signee made his name in the Hip Hop world via prolific mixtape releases that helped land him on the cover of XXL Magazine’s 2009 Freshmen cover.

Now, Curren$y will be releasing the Covert Coup free album on April 20th (Happy 4/20 in advance to all my pothead brethren). The album will be available for download at CurrensySpitta.com. Covert Coup is produced solely by Alchemist (Eminem, Mobb Deep, Nas), and guests include Freddie Gibbs and Prodigy.

Curren$y is comfortable collaborating on projects where one producer oversees the bulk of the beats. He released a pair of albums last year (Pilot Talk and Pilot Talk 2) that were handled almost entirely by Ski Beatz (Jay-Z, Camp Lo).

“Producers, that’s an art. So you work with artists, not hustlers,” Curren$y explained in a recent interview. “Not people just milling beats. It’s like beat mills, don’t do that. You work with artists, and then that way, your music will stand. You’re not trying to sell 10 million records right now. Sell that over time. Sell it to where you’re 50 and your records still selling because people who grew up with you are trying to show their kids what’s fucked up about the game, and then they go to the record store and buy your record to play that for them.”

A collaboration project was announced last year, stating that Curren$y would join the likes of Mos Def and Jay Electronica to form a super group going by the name of Center Edge Territory with a speculative release date sometime in Summer 2011.

Jay Electronica

Personally, I like this guy because his delivery is always interesting and on point, he doesn’t take himself too seriously (he’s a high-functioning pothead, for chrissakes!), he has the most awesome catchphrase (Jets, fool!), and he’s got some pretty fly T-Shirts as well. Curren$y, like myself, acknowledges that Hip Hop has taken a battering over the past few years in terms of public perception, as a result of the level of manufacturing that runs rampant in the music business.

Unfortunately, a lot of eclectic music listeners are close-minded on what to expect in/from a Hip Hop record, but with a genre so diverse, I don’t see how people can’t at least get a bit of Curren$y in their lives.

Curren$y

Get to downloading, people!

Puffy.