An artist with plenty of mixtapes and street releases -- and many of them are linked conceptually -- any single entry in
Curren$y's work is best seen as part of a continuum, with this 2015 LP being a bit of an odd duck. It's his first major-label album in over three years, although it's not a heavy influence and just seems to impact singles like "Bottom of the Bottle," where the production is immaculate, the
August Alsina hook is lush, and
Lil Wayne offers "I'm gonna give her somethin' to choke on" in stark contrast to the smooth jazz guitars underneath. There's no
R. Kelly or
T-Pain in sight as the superstars are worthy stoners like
Future and
Wiz Khalifa, who both perfectly lock with their host on their respective cuts, meaning the main motivator isn't the major-label money. Instead,
Curren$y came off a tour and noticed his fans appreciated both his stoned and his "up" numbers, and he just didn't have enough of the latter. As such, producer Purps got to work and put down a handful of productions that sounded like the usual, soaring
Curren$y stuff but injected with some '90s R&B, as if
Levert remixes are the new, hot bootlegs. Singer
Lloyd is a perfect choice for this atmosphere, and helps make "How High" a highlight, while the marquee MC does fine delivering lines with a -- gasp -- more clear-headed and direct style, sometimes coming close to
Lil B territory while still making it his own. It's another lark from a man who has gone on many of them before, and while some may look to his major-label efforts for the more well-rounded LPs, they can check the Pilot Talk series for that kind of breadth, and appreciate
Canal Street Confidential for the sharp and well-executed idea that it is. [A Deluxe Edition added two bonus tracks: "The Game" and "Str8."] ~ David Jeffries