Tree & I.B.C.L.A.S.S.I.C. • I.B.TREE
It's been over a year since Chicago rapper/producer MC Tree released a proper project. Trap Genius, which dropped back in March of 2015, saw Tree stepping from behind the boards to focus instead on his raps. A founder of the genre SoulTrap, he is perhaps best known for street rhymes over sample-based chipmunk-like instrumentation. Like if Kanye was raised in the Cabrini Green projects, only listened to UGK, lost his voice indefinitely, and never went to college. Projects like The MCTREEG EP, and the duet of Sunday School releases, defined his newly formed sound, one I still embrace on a weekly basis. While Tree's most recent solo album Trap Genius is certainly worth revisiting (in particular the track with Blue Sky Black Death), it created a shift in the sound of Tree. No longer SoulTrap, it was more raw, more trap and less soul.
Thankfully, after a quiet first half of 2016, Tree returns to his true form with the EP I.B.Tree. Featuring seven songs with Tree on the mic and seven songs with producer I.B.C.L.A.S.S.I.C. on the boards, the sample-heavy, SoulTrap sound has returned. We heard "On Dem 4's" and "Kinfolk" earlier, but new tracks like "20" (with Chris Crack) and "The Plug" will be blasted from my car system for the remainder of the summer. It's only right that Tree and I.B.C.L.A.S.S.I.C. released this in August with Chicago days staying in the 90s and remaining in the 80s throughout the night. Press play on this cohesive EP and sweat your way into September. The fall isn't too far away and everyone knows Tree is better in the summer.