In Allblack‘s new video for “War Stories,” he and Mozzy keep DMX’s legacy of hyperviolent but secretly super sad lyricism alive, detailing both the bloody shootouts that peppered their lives with tragedy and the deep mental scars such trauma can bring in its aftermath. “Sometimes I wish I wasn’t loved so much, I’d die today,” Allblack mulls. “Next birthday, I’ma put a bomb inside my cake.” The sentiment is similar to X’s verse on Mase’s “24 Hours To Live,” in which X seemingly decides that 24 hours is just too long and he’s going out with a bang.
Meanwhile, Mozzy’s verse is less depressed but no less grim. “The homies popped the homie, I tried to tell him he wrong,” he remembers. “He don’t care though, all black Forces you know we wear those.” Detroit rapper Peezy brings up the anchor verse, coming a bit more boastfully but with an anxious undercurrent amid the triumphant tone. “Used to sell raw, cook crack up in the kitchen sink,” he muses. “Now I gotta wake up early for a business meetin’.” At least the story has a happy ending.
“War Stories” is the latest single from Allblack’s recently released album TY4FWM, which finds the Bay Area fixture rapping with fellow NorCal rhymers E-40, G-Eazy, Guapdad 4000, and Rexx Life Raj, as well as more Detroiters such as Sada Baby and even Long Beach’s Vince Staples. You can listen to that here.
Watch Allblack’s “War Stories” video with Mozzy above.