Covert Coup at 10: Curren$y and The Alchemist collaborated for a trippy classic.
Shante Scott Franklin, aka Curren$y, and Daniel Alan Maman, aka The Alchemist, share a lot in common. Both have been working since the 1990s. Both have gone through numerous artistic progressions since their careers began. Both are known for their adaptability. The New Orleans born Curren$y sounds great over nearly every type of production, while nearly every single emcee sounds great when rapping over production by the Los Angeles Born Alchemist. So, it’s not a surprise that the… well… alchemy of the two is so special on Covert Coup, their collaborative product that they released ten years ago.
Covert Coup dropped during a weird time in the evolution of the hip-hop release. I don’t know if I could accurately describe the proper distinction between an “album” or a “mixtape” during the mid to late ’00s. A mixtape could be songs featuring an emcee flowing over someone else’s beat, or possibly a collection of songs that they’d decided weren’t going to fit on any forthcoming project. Sometimes (but not always), they’d be available free online for the audience to download, whereas “albums” tended to be exclusively sold commercially.
Somewhere around late ’00s/early ’10s, even these slippery definitions began to further morph. The shift likely started with Mississippi-based rapper Big K.R.I.T. (a homie of and collaborator of Curren$y’s), who released K.R.I.T. Wuz Here (2010) and Return To 4va (2011) for free online. Though both were billed as “mixtapes,” they were near 75 minutes in length, constructed like “albums,” and, in terms of quality, comparable with the best releases of the time.
Covert Coup is in that vein. Curren$y initially released it for free via his Twitter account. It’s not 70+ minutes in length; its runtime doesn’t even crack half an hour. However, it was certainly one of the best releases of 2011 and of the 2010s overall.
Covert Coup was released during the ascendancy of both Curren$y and The Alchemist. Curren$y had released a copious of amounts of mixtapes during the mid to late ’00s, but really began to get noticed for his work as a solo in 2010 with Pilot Talk parts 1 & 2, where he worked primarily with producer Ski Beatz. Both projects were released through Dame Dash’s DD172 imprint in pretty rapid succession. Covert Coup was one of the first projects that Curren$y released afterwards, jointly through his Jet Life imprint and Alchemist’s ALC records.
Alchemist had already been working as producer for close to a 15 years when Covert Coup dropped. He’d come up in the Soul Assassins camp as one half of the teenage rap crew Tha Whooliganz, then made the transition to track-master. He became a solid work horse, really coming into his own during the ’00s, working with artists like Mobb Deep, Jadakiss, and Ghostface Killah. He had produced entire projects for Prodigy and Fashawn in the late ’00s, but found his extra gear as the 2010s hit.
Covert Coup that demonstrated how much Alchemist had leveled up. Yeah, the producer was doing really interesting work with fellow rapper/producer Ohno as one half of Gangrene, but this project was the first where he really displayed the beat-making style that would earn him such acclaim in the past decade. Alchemist is a top-notch crate digger, and for Covert Coup he sculpts obscure Israeli prog rock, early ’80s Norwegian rock, and French disco tracks into swirling, hallucinogenic fever dreams. Tracks frequently feature vocals samples meandering their way through, giving the project another layer of un-reality.
On the lyrical end, Curren$y is … Curren$y. And that’s good. Part of his appeal is that his laid back, stoned cadence remains constant no matter what type of track he rhymes over. Here, his drawl is perfectly suited for Alchemist’s brand of psychedelic rider shit. In some ways, this album is the sonic heir to King Tee’s IV Life (1995), as its mind-expanding music that sounds great in the car and meant to be blasted during the spring and summer months. In terms of subject matter, he tends to stick with what he’s familiar with: smoking copious amounts of marijuana and speeding through the streets in his auto. It’s not revolutionary, but Spitta sounds better than most when covering those topics.
Like all great short releases, Covert Coup feels like a complete thought. Curren$y and Alchemist never overstay their welcome or linger unnecessarily, usually handling the business in two and a half minutes or less. The brevity enhances the project’s replay value.
“Ventilation” the first song released to promote the project, is illustrative of Covert Coup’s overall sound. Guided by slightly sped-up strings and guitar, Curren$y kicks a singular verse, envisioning himself as a budded Scarface (as in Tony Montana) basking in opulence. He soaks in the wealth of his surrounding, while working to remain grounded. “Smoke Break” is similarly simple in its execution, as Curren$y kicks a quick 16-bar verse, describing his stoned journey through his home city.
“Double 07” is another pro-weed anthem, as he boasts about transporting two ounces and seven grams of that good-good on long plane flights. However, he also touches on his hustle as an independent artist. He fashions himself as a “mercenary killer,” rapping, “My independence remain / ’Cause I ain’t working for the radio station like Martin Payne / I grind and maintain my peace of mind / Almost lost it once on the line, but see that I found it just in time.”
Spitta is at his most confrontational on “Success is My Cologne.” He unleashes full-throated contempt on the track, boasting about his limited-edition kicks and lambasting ex-girlfriends and wack emcees alike. Over soaring vocals and rat-tat-tatting drums, Curren$y flows a constant stream of trash-talk, rapping, “They lying, I checked your chart, your file saying you soft / Something fishy, ho n***a, you more bass then boss / Off the boat small fries and stowaways get tossed / Can’t party on the shore with us, fool.”
Some of the strongest tracks on Covert Coup come from his collaborations with other artists. On “Blood, Sweat, and Gears,” Curren$y enlists Fiend (aka International Jones), his old friend from his days on No Limit Records. Fiend’s syrupy, deep-voiced drawl complements Spitta’s stylings well. Fiend administers his “execution flow” on the laid-back and murky track, delivering “10,000 grams of potassium” in the form of lyrical murder. “I never compromise my fresh,” he raps. “Smoke kush, not cess. Why cry? I’m blessed.”
“Scottie Pippen,” Curren$y’s rough and rugged team-up with Freddie Gibbs, is another of Covert Coup’s peaks. Nearly a decade later, Gibbs and Alchemist would go on to record the GRAMMY-nominated Alfredo, but back in 2011, he was becoming known for his substantial mic skills. He delivers on the better verses of his career here, documenting his criminal past and street bonafides. But he also dazzles with his amazing wordplay and complex delivery, rapping, “Leave faces with alterations, the closed-casket console / Trying to make a million dollars, fuck a million downloads / But if that equal the same, then slice that up and give me my change / I made a lane up in this game so n****s gotta remember the name.”
The project wraps up with “Full Metal,” another of the best tracks that Curren$y has ever recorded. As the title suggests, the song borrows liberally from the anime Full Metal Alchemist. Alc samples the show’s score and incorporate dialogue from one of the episodes throughout the track, giving it a grand, soaring feel. Curren$y contributes what is likely the finest verse of his career, looming triumphantly over the beat. “I spit the picture so vivid because I’m really living,” he declares. “This Jet Life, tennis shoes and tuxedos / Them other fools ain’t fly, they fucking mosquitoes / Don’t work, they just crying, whine, fucking Pinot Grigio.”
Covert Coup proved to be a turning point for both Curren$y and Alchemist. Spitta would continue on his prolific path, releasing projects at a nearly unparalleled pace. Alchemist would continue on as one of the go-to producers in hip-hop, becoming nearly as prolific as Curren$y, and regarding during the subsequent decade as one of the best beat-makers breathing. Nearly five years they’d team up again to record The Carrolton Heist (2016), a solid follow-up. A couple of years after that, they’d join Freddie Gibbs to release Fetti (2018), another extremely strong project.
At this point the legacies of Curren$y and The Alchemist are indisputable. They’ve been at the top of their game so long, that it’s almost staggering. However, for all of their material they’ve shared with the world, Covert Coup could be their pinnacle, and their crowning achievement.
