Regent Park's Smoke Dawg has released a punchy, short new freestyle. The Halal Gang rapper goes in on a quick, hookless song with barely a break to take a breath in a style that combines Toronto slang and the hint of a Grime inflection borrowed from Skepta ("in the UK bring your pounds in"), who he collaborated with in 2016 on the song "Overseas."
The title of the song is referenced in the accompanying video, which shows Smoke Dawg rapping alternately in front of a Regent Park project and then a fountain in the plaza in front of a Niagara Falls hotel. Like he says, "who woulda thought" that he'd make the jump between these two places? Drake for one, thought so, bringing Smoke Dawg on his European tour in 2017.
Along with Smoke Dawg's individual rise over the past few years, his crew Halal Gang has also become notorious, with multiple murders being tied to them and a chain-snatching incident and beef which resulted in the song "Halal Meat."
But, if this new song is anything to go by Smoke Dawg isn't going to let any of the drama stop his rise. Coming off a Skepta feature, a tour with Drake and beats produced by Murda Beatz, Smoke Dawg looks and sounds more confident than ever. The flow on "Fountain Freestyle" is so effortless and hard-hitting that maybe we should believe him when he says "If I want it I get it/Straight to the top where I headed."
Quotable Lyrics
Went from touring the trap
To touring off rap
Who they hell woulda thought
They put a price on my head
Put the head was cheap
Cause the shooters my dog
She like how I move
She say Im a star
She wanna fuck with a boss
My bro got locked
Cause his phone was tapped
So we don’t even talk