Nef the Pharaoh - Nef the Pharaoh EP

Pitchfork 73

The odds tend to permanently be stacked against San Francisco-area rap artists, exportability-wise. Even the undisputed legends of the area have never become true household names outside of their home state—Too $hort, E-40, and Mac Dre. It’s a disheartening trend, but it’s easy to theorize about why the pattern has continued for decades. In general, Bay artists tend to like staying independent and favoring sometimes-indigestible levels of prolificacy over carefully curated releases. They also build off of their region’s existing musical traditions — sticking to their corner rather than trying to reinvent the sound of the genre. There always seems to be a gold standard of slapper already in mind—for well over a decade, it’s hinged on a handclap snare, a thin kick beating out Morse code, and a foghorn bass lick—and targeted at all times.

Charismatic 20-year-old Vallejo up-and-comer Nef the Pharaoh also holds these truths to be self-evident, and basically fits the usual bill of a regional Bay star. The young rapper gained momentum mostly through creatively covering classic beats—a swaggy flip of Nas’ "Oochie Wally"—and delivering crisp neighborhood pride anthems: Last year’s muted "Bitch I’m From Vallejo" turned the heads of local hero Cousin Fik and his mentor and labelhead E-40.

Nef’s first release for 40’s Sick Wid It Records is also full of stylistic references and hat-tips, though—perhaps surprisingly for a Bay MC—mostly to idols from far outside San Francisco. Quotes from classic '90s Cash Money Records singles structured his January single "Big Tymin’", and the influence of this kind of music weighs heavily on the entire EP. "Boss Me" is based around a sing-songy bounce cadence, and Nef recycles Juvenile’s "Ha" line construction on his Auto-Tune-riddled twerking ode "Meantime". Nef is contributing to what seems to be a mini-trend in post-hyphy rap toward turn-of-the-millenium Southern music these days: His tourmate, collaborator, and Heartbreak Gang sideman Kool John regularly bites Hot Boys flows (his most recent single with Joe Moses interpolates 2002 Big Tymers hit "Get Your Roll On"), L.A. affiliate Problem notably interpolated Master P and Young Bleed, and Juvenile himself hopped on the popular remix to fellow HBKer Iamsu!’s strip club anthem "100 Grand".

If Kool John likes to play the Juve or Mannie role, the less laconic Nef favors Wayne. Just when the likeness starts to become eerie, Nef backs off and switches hats, always with an overtly comic, lightly ironic timing, like he’s carrying off an elaborately plotted series of pranks. His verses pit in-and-out-of-phase, cartoonish rambling (à la his mentor and labelhead E-40) against lilting but controlled double-time. Snap-jumps between simpering bad boy posturing in his high range ("Trips to Rome, shrimps and calzones/ I’m always outta range, I’ma text you when I get home"), a more intimidating low purr, and a diplomatic, Drake-ian midrange (see introspective closer "Come Pick Me Up") give his verses a character-driven quality that's almost Jim Carrey-esque. Luckily, this isn't a When Nature Calls scenario; Nef’s sensibility isn't exhausting. The rapper can embody the obnoxious neighborhood bully, the smoothest game-spitter in school, and a conscientious father in one song all without spoiling the mood, or upstaging the beat.

The flow and intonation shifts as Nef pans between scenes: after-shift rendezvous with strippers, hustling rituals encrypted in dense slang, and more bald-faced, confessional anecdotes. He tends to pick simple governing metaphors and pushes them to logical but satisfying conclusions—in the marimba-studded nu-G-funk strut "Michael Jackson", most effectively, he uses an extended King of Pop metaphor to forge an elaborate tribute to designer shoe shopping.

This six-song EP does not provide a definitive answer on whether Nef is just an effective conduit for great party songs, or if he’s got a voice that’s resonant enough for a full career of albums and features. It’s a bunch of stabs in promising directions—a more ambitious extension of his earlier YouTube drops and his #RichBy25 mixtape. Success is ensured on the EP by the neighborhood heroes he’s got supporting him: rising talent June on Da Beat, G-Funk wizard and indispensible area talent scout DJ Fresh, and P-Lo, HBK’s more baroque answer to DJ Mustard.

Even in the Bay—which, from Mac Dre to Shady Nate to Husalah, has birthed an untold amount of slickness—charm as strong and effortless as Nef’s doesn’t come along everyday. He may slide into other people’s flows so well that you lose track of him for a moment, but the style and grace with which he ducks and weaves between them imbues everything he does with personality. His brand of unfailingly zany energy has characterized the best hip-hop of his region for decades, and Nef’s never been ashamed to acknowledge it ("Mac motherfucking Dre lives in me," he claims at the beginning of last year’s "M.A.C."). He’s pretty good at making anything sound cool, and maybe even cleverer than it is. See his song-stealing verse on DJ Mustard's "You Know It" from earlier this year, which closes out with: "Money on my mind like a headband/ Fucking with my ‘fetti, you a dead man/ Shoot him in his chest, watch his head split/ Every day I make a band and never play the instrument."

What he has that many of his local peers don’t is a consistent ear for hooks, a willingness to play the field stylistically without outpacing himself, and a precision of purpose. "In the land of the lost, I’m the nigga to win," he claims on "Mobbin". With industry cosigns, a "Big Tymin’" remix from Cali-stars-turned-national-influencers Ty Dolla $ign and YG (included here) and a national tour with the latter under his belt, Nef has a rare entry point for success beyond Solano County. If this EP is any indication, he may also have the pop prowess and adaptability to make the most of it.