Last year, Big Matloc from Tacoma Hip-Hop Group Pyranha Gang released his debut album Act Accordingly. It was serious, contemplative street music and I had have had it on repeat for a year. Luckily for us, Matloc just dropped his second album, 2 E’s. This is an ode to the Eastside if you do not know and the cover art on the album verifies the turf. The album cover is a picture of a young child, probably Big Matloc himself, hitting up two E’s with toddler hands. It is as thorough as it gets and is a testament to how hard Big Matloc bleeds his soil.
The album starts off dark and heavy and this is Big Matloc’s lane. His music is depressing in the sense that it paints such a vivid, true picture of the pitfalls of the streets that it is impossible to not get in your feels when you hear Big Matloc bleeding on the beat. Matloc has a deep, rough voice and he chooses simple yet cinematic beats. His Hip-Hop has a real melancholy feel to it. It is not celebration music. It is struggle and survival music.