YG’s 2016 release, “Still Brazy,” feels like a bit of very real 21st-century America, with “Blacks & Browns” featuring rapper Sad Boy sketching out some of the related hardships of life in L.A. for Mexican Americans and African Americans in the city’s more troubled districts. Little piano figures get paired with gritty, smeared bass lines.
Other tracks address police brutality — a recurring theme in L.A. hip-hop. Even so, it points to the past as well. The debt to Dr. Dre seems pretty clear, with the record sounding like a G-funk revival. “FDT” is an extended rage-rap against Donald Trump. (The “DT” is his initials, and you can guess what the “F” is.)
YG has collaborated with Drake, Kendrick Lamar, DJ Mustard, Lil Wayne and other giants of the genre. YG’s rapping can sucker-punch you, with a casual pace that he mixes up with surprising changes of rhythmic subdivisions, chopping his syllables into double time or switching the feel to bunched-up triplets.
YG, Sad Boy and other guests, bring their FDT Tour to Toad’s Place, 300 York St., New Haven, Tuesday, Oct. 18, at 8 p.m. Tickets are $36. 203-624-8623, toadsplace.com.
