D-Ash-Smokaholics
Lyrics: 7.2/10
Beats: 9/10
Features: 5/10
Production: 9/10
Content: 7/10
OVERALL RATING: 7.44/10
The Smokaholics mixtape by, hip hop artist, D-Ash was quite a hit and miss record for me. By the title, you can tell that the theme of this mixtape is going to be smoking up, living the life and getting high theme which D-Ash captures with many of the songs on the mixtape. With a tracklist that is 15 long, D-Ash compiled this mixtape of short songs and single verses, commonly found on mixtapes, and included a few full length tracks, and even a prelude skit, which, I must say, I have not seen most underground artists do.
As mentioned before, D-Ash establishes the ‘smoke up and live the life’ tone of the mixtape with various tracks such as “Smokaholics Everywhere” featuring, rappers Elroy Jets and Young Mighty, and “Lifted” featuring, singer, R-Squared. However, the mixtape also includes some deeper tracks such as “Memory Lane”, a song in which D-Ash talks about his life, and “In The Evening”, in which he expresses his feelings after a rough patch with a woman. D-Ash even shares his dreams and aspirations with his fans on the song “4 In The Moanin”. The addition of the skits adds a nice humorous touch to the mixtape, especially, in my eyes, with the addition of a skit from the movie “Friday”, to add the comedic styling of Chris Tucker.
Lyrically, I feel this mixtape started out a little weak, however this was mainly attributed to the work of D-Ash’s features. In the first three songs, there are two in which D-Ash, himself, is mentioned in the chorus. In “Lifted” R-Squared was put in charge of singing for the hook, and he could not complete it without putting his and D-Ash’s name in it. I feel his vocals could have been much better lyrically. In “Smokaholics Everywhere”, not only were D-Ash and his features integrated into the chorus, but into the rhymes of all three artists in this song. There were also many tracks where the mixtape title was integrated into the rhymes. I feel as if this could have been improved with the use of a mixtape host, so that both D-Ash’s name and the mixtape title could have been turned into drops on the songs, instead of the artists having to integrate it into their lyrics, which would allow them to expand their lyrical content further.
I feel, also, as if there are a couple songs in which the hook does not quite go with the lyrical content of the verses. In “Criminal Minded” the hook is about a person whose criminal mind is all that they have, however, D-Ash focuses, mostly, on him creating and spreading his music. Perhaps he meant this as to say “I’m making music so I don’t do criminal things”, but that message is not plainly evident. This isn’t a bad thing, necessarily, because it gives the listeners incentive to think about what they’re listening to. I also feel as if “In The Evening” had a hook that did not quite go with the verses. The verses have lyrical content based on the theme that D-Ash is struggling with a hard time with a girl, and is trying to cope. However, the hook is more of a cocky style, which appears to take the stance of “I can do you better than your man can”.
Despite these qualities, the Smokaholics” mixtape is a definite ‘must listen’ for hip hop fans who enjoy music with the ‘smoke up’ theme, as well as those who live that lifestyle. D-Ash expresses his versatility on a number of different beats, never sticking with the same style of instrumental, and including different styles of lyrical content in his music. You can download a copy of this mixtape on Datpiff.com, or contact @SwaggerFloe on Twitter for more details.
