Better known in the hip-hop community as Curren$y, and referred to by his passionate fan base as “Spitta” or “The Hot Spitta,” he is one of rap’s fastest rising stars, and he’ll be making a pit stop tonight in Northampton to headline at the Pearl Street Ballroom.
With notoriety mostly stemming from his Internet buzz, Curren$y hasn’t received much fame commercially, but his discography and career to date seemingly speak for itself.
Curren$y entered the rap game in 2002 as part of the 504 Boyz with Master P. After earning some fame there, he signed with Cash Money Records and Young Money Entertainment with Lil Wayne in 2004. From there, his career blossomed into what it is today. He released the mixtapes “Welcome Back, Curren$y,” “G-Series” and “Life at 30,000 Feet” while under Young Money. But due to a lack of promotion, he left the label. Without a label, Curren$y released a slew of mixtapes, including “Welcome to the Winner’s Circle,” “Higher Than 30,000 Feet” and “Super Tecmo Bowl.”
The Hot Spitta finally released his debut album under Amalgam Digital in 2009 entitled “This Ain’t No Mixtape,” an ode to the countless number of mixtapes that he had released. Soon after, Curren$y teamed up with Wiz Khalifa to put out the much anticipated “How Fly” mixtape. Building off of the momentum of that project, he released his second studio album, “Jet Flies,” also under Amalgam Digital. Curren$y had arguably his most successful year in 2010, releasing the highly-acclaimed mixtape “Smokee Robinson” as well as two more studio albums, released through Def Jam, “Pilot Talk” and “Pilot Talk II,” featuring songs with hip-hop legends Snoop Dogg, Mos Def and Raekwon. Now just one month away from turning 30-years-old, Spitta is reaching the pinnacle of his career, and his fifth studio album, “Muscle Car Chronicles,” is due out March 15.
Aside from Curren$y, a few other artists will have the opportunity to grace the stage on Pearl Street tonight.
UMass’ own Christian McCracken, also known as L.A.N.K, is a finance-economics major from Princeton, N.J. and is one of several openers for Curren$y. Since starting to rap back in sixth grade, McCracken has slowly improved his craft over the years, rapping over beats produced by his friends to fulfill his creative juices and love for the genre.
Backed by production from Nomad, Soul Controller and DJ In.tel, McCracken released his first official mixtape – available for free online – called “The Roughest Draft” last November that includes all original material except for two remix tracks.
Black Thought from The Roots, Talib Kweli and Jurassic 5 are among the influential artists that inspire McCracken, in addition to mainstream artists such as Eminem, Nas and Jay-Z. Curren$y might not be on the level of those artists just yet, but the opportunity still has McCracken very excited.
“One of the coolest things honestly is just to get on a real stage and use real sound equipment,” McCracken said. “It’s really cool to have your own beats and things that you’ve been using for the past year at a real live show like that. And obviously a name like Curren$y is huge, so no matter what, it’s gonna be awesome.”
Other openers for the show include Corner Boy P and Fiend, who have been featured in several Curren$y tracks. C Banga, a rapper who is also a UMass student and Split Second, a hip-hop group consisting of members Xcel, Dougie P and J Jax round out the lineup for the concert.
Doors for the show will open at 9 p.m. at the Pearl Street Ballroom and tickets will be available at the door.
Stephen Hewitt can be reached at [email protected].
