Bandplay and Starlito
Starlito is no stranger to a collaborative album, especially one where the veteran Nashville rapper teams up with a fellow Tennessean. During his nearly 25-year career, ’Lito has released Star & Gotti with Memphis MC Yo Gotti, StarBucks with Nashville’s ultimate hip-hop OG Young Buck and, of course, the long-running Step Brothers series with Don Trip, another Memphis star.
Starlito has once again bridged the musical gap between Memphis and Nashville (though not exactly the geographical one, more on that in a second) with a joint effort. This time he’s teamed up with a producer to create a specific sound rather than trading bars with a fellow MC. Enter Bandplay. Hailing from Middle Tennessee — he was born and raised in Columbia — Bandplay made his name crafting hits for Bluff City rappers like Key Glock and late folk hero Young Dolph. His work on tracks like Dolph and Glock’s hit “Major” is filled with the hard-hitting hi-hats found throughout trap music, so it was a bit of a surprise to hear Bandplay’s work on the twangy Starlito collab Not the Country You Know, a double album released in March and entrenched firmly in Nashville both sonically and lyrically. The pair heads to Exit/In on Friday, June 5, as part of a series of shows celebrating the album.
In the music video for the opening title track, featuring a hook from R&B singer Bryant Taylorr, ’Lito is rocking a cowboy hat on a farm surrounded by tractors as he raps about jumping on I-40 to “grab something from Arnold’s.” But the country-fied songs aren’t gimmicky like, say, Morgan Wallen and Lil Durk’s “Broadway Girls” or BigXThaPlug and Bailey Zimmerman’s “All the Way.” The country touches add to the authenticity as Starlito brings the level of consistency and sincerity we’ve come to expect from his rhymes.
Part one of the double album, subtitled Unhappy Hour (the second half is named Last Call), features a killer one-two punch near the end with “Is You Cool,” co-starring the aforementioned Young Buck, and “How You Wanna Play,” which has a scene-stealing guest verse from another local rapper, Six Street Lil Mac.
These tracks make it abundantly clear that Not the Country You Know isn’t just about adding a twangy flair to Starlito and Bandplay’s hip-hop sound. The album, which chronicles a rapidly changing city, could easily be called Not the Nashville You Know. And after 25 years, if there’s one person I trust with chronicling a transforming Music City, it’s Starlito.
