The first sound on Step Brothers 2 is Starlito arguing good-naturedly with Don Trip over which one of them should go first. (The track is song is called "Paper Rock, Scissors," suggesting how they settled the issue.) The two rappers—Starlito from Nashville, Don Trip from Memphis—enjoy a bond unusual among solo artists and particularly unique among rappers. (I recommend reading some interviews with the two of them if you need to feel good today.) The two met in 2010, when they were both were fairly recent castoffs from major labels; Don Trip had a cup of coffee on Interscope, while Starlito submitted his talents to the ruthless Cash Money grinder for years. Both of them were in the throes of building the kind of midlevel regional careers that ensures you'll always have fans but might never have money. They clicked.
The mixtape they made, 2011's Step Brothers, took its title from the then-three-year-old Will Ferrell/John C. Reilly vehicle. "[I was drawn to] the concept of the camaraderie between two strangers that were so quirky in their own regard that they wouldn't gel with anyone else," Starlito told The Fader. It was the most popular thing either of them had ever released; fair or not, they learned the world paid more attention to them together than to either of them alone.
Other rappers might have rushed out a sequel within six months, to strike while the iron is hot. But Lito and Trip are shrewd and deliberate, which means that Step Brothers 2 is out now, two years later, and unlike its predecessor, it's available for retail. They spent money on beats from Drumma Boy, Sonny Digital, and other in-demand producers, and honed their songs and concepts. What you don't get this time around: the bottled-lightning sound of two rappers falling in love with each other's ideas in real time. What you do get: Two of the most honest writers in rap working together at maximum comfort and confidence.
As with the first Step Brothers, Lito and Trip largely don't bother with hooks. "No chorus but it's goin' on like four minutes," Starlito says wryly on "Paper, Rock Scissors," and many of these songs just go on and on, in the best and most exciting sense, both rappers dreaming up vivid phrasing and rapping for audiences of one. "My ink pen drip icicles," Don Trip says on "Paper, Rock, Scissors". "Servin, servin like we never heard of cops/ Prefer to handle my business personally -you want this work or not?" raps Starlito on "28th Song". They elbow out the beats, blotting out the empty spaces, rap for 32 bars or more; they have too much to say, and it's exhilarating.
