The Miami native, Sylvan LaCue, formerly known as QuESt, must have smelled something in the air. Whether it was the success of Drake’s Dark Lane Demo Tapes or the official streaming release of Lil Wayne’s No Ceilings, the time for streaming seminal mixtapes has never been more apparent.
The prolific MC dropped a collection of previously rejected songs or unpolished demos in his new nine-track mixtape, No More Apologies, a project with a title well-suited to match it’s raw and uncompromising tone.
LaCue once-more captured the bare-knuckled emotion of such projects as the critically acclaimed, Searching Sylvan, but this time with a greater sense of longevity and maturation, as the rapper celebrates turning 30.
The handwritten track-listing sprawled down the mixtape’s artwork neatly prefaces the personal touch it appears LaCue couldn’t help but bring to the table. On “McKenzie Freestyle” and “The Cleanse”, we find him exploring new lyrical heights, as he revels in the depths of contemplation seen among only a few of his musical peers.
It seems paradoxical to say we’re presented with a tender trap project, but this may just be intentional on his part, as thoughtful flows and cutting lyrics force listeners to think beyond the vibrant edge of the mixtape’s underlying trap beats.
The predominantly self-produced venture leaves little room for small talk, totaling in at just near 20 minutes long, yet remains an intimate, humble portrait of a wide-spanning career that has yet to reach its potentially stratospheric peak.
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