Outside of Larry June, Dom Kennedy, Premo Rice, and a few others, we just don’t get enough truly “player” raps anymore, my friends. What happened to the music that made you wish you had a drop top on Daytons? It’s like our favorite rappers forgot about giving game to the youth and telling them what speakers they need to install in their 1997 Benz. Insert Southern California artist Chap D. Chap D released 4 albums in 2022(I know artists who don’t have 4 albums total in 10 years) and is off to a fresh start with his first album of 2023 . An album full of motivation, fly moves, and player politics over beats that sound like they were crafted with Prosecco pouring in the background.

The Album starts with Don’t Stop which could quite possibly end up being your favorite song on the project. It's a strong start from the production to Chap’s laid-back but brazen flow. It’s not a sex song, but it's a sex song if that makes sense. Either way, it's a fire beginning and doesn’t play as the usual rap album intros do. It does a nice job of setting the tone for the entire album. A tone that continues into No Matter What They Say. “Prosecco man, flyest in the room” he echoes before leading into the hook. It's a short sweet bio and a statement just the same. 2 tracks in and Chap is setting a good pace with both records providing that early cohesiveness that makes you want to hear how the rest of the album unfolds.

Now before we go any further we have to discuss track 6 MMTWGR and how it's the standout song on this album in my opinion. Fast pace choppy flow over a blend of jazz and funk at a slow tempo. At just 2 minutes and 26 seconds, it encapsulates exactly what Chap D is trying to convey with an album title like. It's exactly what a night fueled by Prosecco and surrounded by good women who wear French tip nails and don’t have cracked iPhone 14 screens sounds like. BTW if you haven’t figured it out yet MMTWGR stands for “Money Make The World Go Round”…also BTW stands for “by the way” please stay with me my pals we have more to discuss.

The back half of the album is carried by Back & Forth. While songs like Proud of You and The New Game are very much so worth the listen, I found myself coming back to Back & Forth more. A hypnotizing hook that will hug your eardrums like your favorite auntie used to hug you at your birthday parties growing up. It’s a late-night theme song to play while you make the drive down PCH and see the water hit the rocks. It's refreshing to see Chap wrap up the album just as strongly as he started it.

I say all of that to say this. We watch so many artists end up falling off when they put out music at a high rate. Somewhere along the line the quality drops, the material gets stagnant, and some rappers flat-out run out of ways to paint a vivid picture of the same subject matter they’ve been speaking on for their past few albums. None of that applies to Chap D who I think deserves applause for being able to keep things fresh and new after a year that saw him release 4 albums. How do you show your appreciation for that? I’d say you do like Chap D…skip on the Costco champagne and pour some Prosecco while you listen to Proseccoman.