This past summer Spitta floored us with his major label debut. His hyper-visual wordplay delivered in that unmistakable drawl of his seemed to be a perfect, if unlikely, match for Ski Beatz’s smooth, crisp production. That album yielded a few classics, and while I can’t necessarily say the same for it’s follow-up, the formula hasn’t really changed since.

Somehow the tone of this project has shifted from it’s predecessor despite all the same basic factors being left in place. If Pilot Talk was the daylight that showcased Curren$y’s talent to the world, part 2 is that evening’s afterparty. Even the cover art seems to exhibit this theme. The laid-back jazzy vibe of the project conjures up images of plush pads filled with herb smoke and beautiful women. It’s a sound that permeates the album so heavily that it almost makes it one-dimensional. Spitta addresses some of his favorite subjects once more (weed, food, women, cars), but even with more solid production from Ski, the lack of stand-outs makes it obvious that the original dwarfs the sequel without question.

But it’s enjoyable. The eerie whistle and funky bassline of “Airborne Aquarium” courtesy of Lab Ox is almost reminiscent of a Chronic-era Dr. Dre production — providing a nice backdrop for Curren$y to kick the album off by kicking rhymes with such a vicious intensity that you almost believe for a minute he might have put down those paper planes for a minute.

But nah… not Spitta. Herb is just as important to his music as it ever was, and after more razor sharp barbs on the album’s lead single, “Michael Knight,” the zoned-out vibe kicks in, and we settle back to revel in the familiar pictures that it causes to shuffle through his mind. On that track he spits:

“it’s written all over niggas like a Dapper Dan / cactus plants growing in desert sands / alive I stand, left for dead, though a nigga didn’t die / I got highed up so I could autograph the sky”

As I said, there are no real big records on here, with the exception of the two mentioned above. “Flight Briefing” is another Ski-produced highlight that features JETS affiliates Young Roddy and Trademark Da Skydiver — whose fanbase and respect level as an MC should continue to grow with the help of his showing here.

If you’ve been following Curren$y’s blog activity over the past several months, you will note that he’s been working with fellow No Limit alum, Fiend, as of late. Two brand new collaborations of theirs can be found on this project — one of them being an extremely impressive piece of horn-driven production from Fiend called “Highed Up” that could very well have been mistaken for a Ski beat. The other is a vocal-pairing of the two called “O.G. (The Jam),” which features such an impressive guest verse that it only adds to the hype and speculation as to the level of excellence that their rumored collaborative project might possibly reach.

This might be an annoying thing to say, but if a few key selections from this album could somehow have been injected into the prequel, Spitta might have had the privilege of releasing a classic. The beauty of his music is that it’s spur-of-the-moment. It seems to me that Curren$y has the sort of work ethic and creative output that could possibly enable him to keep pace with Lil Wayne. It’s for that reason that I have the sneaking suspicion that a Pilot Talk 3 might be lurking somewhere down the road, and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it at least just as much as this one when it arrives.

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