SmarTrip Check

As the sounds of a syncopated go-go rhythm and background noise from the Metro fill the ears of the listener,Eric “Lega-c” Smith starts off his highly anticipated debut mixtape with a checklist. You can almost see him as he shrugs into his North Face jacket, laces up his Nike Boots and places a Nat’s fitted cap on his head. Making sure to grab his iPod, he gives a shout-out to fellow DMV artist Wale and checks to make sure that he has SmarTrip Card before taking the listener on a journey with him.

The journey begins on “Green Line” a freestyle recorded at Maryland’s Suitland Station

SmarTrip in hand, Lega-c then proceeds to lead us on a trip down memory lane on the Daasair assisted track “So Good” about a girl who used to call him her soldier. As the song ends with a promise to always treat her like he should, fellow collaborator and mixtape host DJ Torkaveli cuts in.

“…We ain’t all about the bubblegum, sugar coatin’ everything, every now and then, we gotta give you the real. Sometimes you like it, sometimes you don’t. Hate it or love it, let’s go.”

If you’re easily offended by truth then it’s guaranteed that you’re “Not Gonna Like This Track”. Lega-c banishes misconceptions about everything from hip-hop to politics as he stops listeners from seeing things the way that they want to see them and paints a picture of how things really are. Taking a jab at radio and it’s dumbed down lyrical content, Torkaveli smoothly transitions into “You’re a Dork” where Lega-c shows just how evidently better than these dork ass niggas he is by goin’ ham on them and the beat Johnny Juliano crafted. While his flow is refined, he states that his quality sucks which is why no one cares too much about his music in “LayOver” and track contributor Ill Prophet waxes poetic about the path that he’s taken and those that are fakin’ on artists from the DMV. With an assist from the Mixtape King and DMV Rebel DJ Torkaveli, Lega-c informs listeners that his reality is much higher than their salary over the beat of Kid Cudi’s “Alive”. Over some production courtesy of Vybe Productions, he and Magnum Dollar$ “Kill Dat Noise”. Then it’s time for a look back over a “Typical” Friday in the life of a young artist—not rapper.

After a ride on the “Blue Line”, Lega-c and Ill Prophet get a bit “PoLyrically Correct” and Lega-c finally meets you at your destination as the tape ends with bar after bar of straight lyricism.

To download The SmarTrip Chronicles and support DMV hip-hop, click the album art below

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