Daytona - Pusha T

The end of spring and the following summer 2018 provided some of the most important hip-hop music to grace the 2010s, for the world and for myself. I’ll never forget sitting on the edge of my bed watching the live stream of the ye album premiere. At this time, Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, was in peak form in terms of music production, spearheading the production of five separate projects within the GOOD Music label. The catch, all of these albums were released within one month.

To start this onslaught of album releases came Pusha T’s Daytona, which included seven tracks produced entirely by Ye. Each track is as hard-hitting as the next, seemingly trying to outdo each other. Of the seven, my favorite is easily the second track “The Games We Play”, which combines a sharp guitar sample chopped up to perfection with unrelenting bars from Pusha. This track as well as the six others fueled the fire during my run.

While I’m not too aware of Pusha’s past projects, the confidence and flair that come through his raps on this project make it seem like they’re his best to date. Aspirations of achieving greatness above his contemporaries and tales of past drug deals litter the project, creating a cutthroat and ominous energy around the listen. Tracks like “Come Back Baby” and “Santeria” help greatly to enforce this.

Toward the end of my run, the last track on the tape, “Infrared”, came on. While this track is an excellent end to the project, it is known mostly for its bars directed toward Drake, which ultimately started their famous 2018 rap beef. With a runtime of 21 minutes and ten seconds, Daytona is a very digestible rap masterclass.