Blue Chips 2, the heavily anticipated follow-up to Action Bronson‘s critically acclaimed 2012 mixtape dropped earlier this month to high praise. The mixtape’s release also heightened anticipation for the Queens’ rapper’s forthcoming major label debut LP.
Blue Chips 2 is a modern tribute to the cannon of East Coast Hip-Hop–light on hooks but heavy on bars and grit. The album also pays tribute through its use of samples and sound clips from numerous film and music genres. Blue Chips 2 is lightly themed by the eponymous 1994 college basketball drama ‘Blue Chips,’ which featured Nick Nolte, Anfernee Hardaway, Shaq, and more, while keeping with the chef-turned-gangsta theme endemic to the Action Bronson ethos. Party Supplies, the Fools Gold associated Brooklyn-based DJ who produced Blue Chips 1 & 2 shines on this album, perhaps almost equally to Bronson himself with his out-of-the-box production, sampling and surprise sound clips that make Blue Chips 2 feel more like a musical action flick than a mixtape. John Mellencamp‘s “Jack and Diane,” Phil Collins “Sussudio,” and “Tequila,” are just a few of the songs sampled on Blue Chips 2, but even more prevalent are the soundbites that are peppered throughout the mixtape. In order to help listeners put together the narrative that lurks in the seedy underbelly of Blue Chips 2, we tracked down the source of some its most theatrical moments.