For backpackers and underground fans, it’s a must, but anyone who wants their hip-hop both a bit stranger and a lot deeper will fall hard for this one.Maverick and his best friend Lt Nick “Goose” Bradshaw (Anthony Edwards) train at the elite Naval Fighter Weapons School, dubbed TOPGUN, which schools the “best of the best” in aerial dog-fighting.Īccompanied by a hyper-masculine soundtrack of screaming electric guitars and thudding synths, the reckless Maverick must negotiate his grief at Goose’s accidental death, his rivalry with Lt Tom “Iceman” Kazansky (Val Kilmer) and the long shadow of his father’s reputation – before beating out enemy fighters and getting the girl.

Much praise must be thrown the way of Ski Beatz, who handles all but two of the tracks here but still comes up with a varied set of productions that are both innovative and infectious. So many fast and smart rhymes flow out of the man during “Breakfast” that track demands repeat listens and when he sets the flippant tone with “I’m so sorry if I don’t look excited to be here/In your label office, but they said I can’t smoke weed here,” guests Mos Def and Jay Electronica follow suit, making “The Day” a prime candidate for underground rapper anthem of 2010. The key cut must be the spacy roller called “King Kong” where the rapper revisits his pilot obsession and talks of swatting them out of the sky with more precision than that ten-story ape (by the mighty “Address” he’s got “Crooks in my neck from watching all the jets”). In other words, it introduces newcomers to the Currensy mixtape experience, which isn’t a bad thing whatsoever. Currensy’s third effort came with wider distribution than his earlier two, but rather than act like a second chance at a spotlight debut, Pilot Talk is a featured-filled album with plenty of tracks that will be familiar to anyone who keeps up on their Internet leaks.

Pilot talk trilogy tour setlist