by Marcus K. Dowling
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Fat Trel’s Nightmare on E Street is a tremendously pedestrian release. However, rap is so devoid of new and honest performers that being an average gangster rapper still on pace to have the potential to change the hip-hop game makes Fat Trel relevant. There are moments here, like the terrific “Benning Rd” that give rap music reason to cheer. Big KRIT-produced “Swishers and Liquor” is the mixtape’s most important performance. Having a connection with the “next to blow” Mississippi rapper and producer is clutch. The song itself is solid, and in an era where pop mainstream songs often exist more for statement than content, it’s a perfunctory announcement that the “Fat Fool” has arrived as the ratchet id to KRIT’s respectable urban griot presence. The fact that KRIT’s clearly decided to reach all the way up to DC to find the perfect yin to his yang denotes two key issues. A) Rising Southern rappers apparently aren’t very good at keeping it really real, and B) Fat Trel has “once in a generation” type ability.