Payback

South Carolina rapper Danny Swain shoots clever satiric spitballs from the hip-hop margins. On “Shit Starters,” from his debut album for Questlove’s Okayplayer label, he does a mock Rick Ross flow over a Timbaland influenced groove: “I’m Seinfeld/Larry David/This beat I made sounds very dated.” But eighty minutes of gripes about label persecution and insufficiently positive reviews feels like celeb whining from someone who isn’t famous.

Listen to ‘Playback’