Harvey rapper Ty Money dropped the sequel to last year’s fantastic Cinco de Money last week—it came out May 5, turning the first mixtape’s release date into a tradition. There wasn’t much premeditation behind the name or the date, at least not the first time around—in January, Money told me that he didn’t decide to riff on Cinco de Mayo till the day before he dropped Cinco de Money, when he was spitballing ideas at DJ Victoriouz’s house. (The holiday commemorates the Mexican army’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, in case you’ve forgotten.) Cinco de Money 2 came out in the interval between Drake’s chart-smashing Views and Radiohead’s serenely detailed A Moon Shaped Pool, but it’s got enough heat to shine even in the long shadows of those giants.
Given the recent deluge of big-name releases, my already erratic listening habits have become even more so—but I’ve made time here and there to return to Cinco de Money 2. From my first listen, I was stuck on “Okay.” It’s the shortest song on the mixtape, but Money can put you in a grip in a hurry—he excels in a time crunch. He shows off his ear for melody on “Okay,” cooling his jets and slowing down to half-sing his sorrowful observations of street life. He hooked me with the line “I’m from where you can’t buy a name off eBay”—it’s concise, effective, and helps me forgive the fact that he rhymes “eBay” with “eBay.”