Providence, RI emcee Storm Davis brings you Only Built 4 Cuban Sandwiches, a collection of smooth, sun-soaked party anthems of frustration, introspection, and emotional exfoliation that SD describes as "the world's first Adult-Contemporary hip hop album". "We need to consider what happens when the yacht stops rocking, when the washboard player of Aught-rock becomes the turntablist of nu-metal. Because it will happen," Davis muses, apropos of nothing. "What will you do when Brooklyn rises up and takes back Brooklyn? If you stop making music after you realize that you'll never sell enough records to afford the things that you claim on those records that you don't need, should you have been making music in the first place? Probably not. So the alternative is to hope that you grew a soul somewhere along the line and use it to make some 'Old Man Rap.' That's what this album is. Get-Off-My-Lawncore." The concept of 'Grown Man Rap' is not a new one in hip hop, but the self-professed 'Thinking Man's Idiot' claims that his Purple Tape isn't that: "In my experience, 'Grown Man Rap' bears a suspicious resemblance to the rap that it claims to be distancing itself from. The only thing that OB4CS claims to distance itself from is itself. And Raekwon's legal team." Recorded in the summer of 2010 and, for reasons no one can quite explain, released four years later, Only Built 4 Cuban Sandwiches features soul-inspired, classic underground hip hop production from The RumRunners (Entity & Luckee Luciano), plus guest appearances from Juan Deuce, Jon Hope, Reason of Poorly Drawn People, and Seez Mics (ex-Educated Consumers). While the music contained on the album bears no resemblance to the Wu Tang classic that the title pays homage to, it has one thing in common: both albums exist. "You can paint a crown on a wall, but that doesn't make you Basquiat, at best it encourages a homeless person to open a Burger King." Davis pauses, choking on a wad of Big League Chew. He expels it on to the spiky part of a nearby hedgehog, and martyrdom is averted. He breathes deeply and looks up. "Then again, I released an album on a cassette tape in 2014 primarily so that I could mock those who don't understand why someone would do that. No one should listen to anything I have to say." ------ A quick synopsis for those unfamiliar with the history of SD: Defying the notion that there are no second acts in American politics, he returned to the public consciousness when he was exposed to be the fat girl referenced by Redman on De La Soul's hit single "Oooh". After the turn of the century, he enjoyed a run of regional underground success (or, in music industry terms, "dry humping") in the Northeastern US, mostly with the indie rap collective Poorly Drawn People. He released his debut album Kegstand Poetry for the Recovering Alcoholic in 2006. A compilation of his work with PDP, ingeniously called Songs I Made With Poorly Drawn People, followed in 2011. Since 2008, he has acted as Label Manager of indie rap juggernaut Strange Famous Records. He is best known for not being cast in the role of Brandon Walsh in the 1990s FOX TV series Beverly Hills 90210. -------------------------------------------- Early reviews for OB4CS: "Soft as f*ck." - Chris Conti, The Providence Phoenix "Like listening to the unraveling of a man who didn't really give a sh*t to begin with." - Austin, Hot 106.3 FM (Providence RI) Rise & Grind Morning Show --------------------------------------------