With his form readied, Santa Ana rapper Kevin Parx dropped his latest mixtape Freethrows earlier this week. The collection of 15 tracks definitely elevates his craft to another level. Parx warms up with a signature 'Haa' grunt before killing verses throughout. On the mixtape, the choruses comes with rhymes that stay stuck on listeners' minds. The title track “Freethrows” declares “Now the streets know/ Fuck that other shit/ This is freethrows” before breaking out into a repeated chant of 'free-throws!' On “Explosive” he rolls out a catchy lyrical interpolation from the similarly titled song off of Dr. Dre's 2001 album.
The mixtape bumps through the beats of Get Money Boy$ (GMB) production with Wizzo and KY handling most of the tracks. Back when the Weekly checked in with Parx before the release of Freethrows he hinted that there was a conceptual element surrounding relationships. As it turns out, it's damn clever and paced throughout the album in the form of skits with characters June, Karma and Trinity.
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We won't give it all away here, so the intrigued are just going to have to listen to Freethrows from beginning to end.
On how the skits completed the mixtape:
“I had the skits in my mind, I didn't script anything. I called three of my friends. They came through and they did it! No rehearsing, no nothing. It was crazy for me because the album wasn't really finished until a couple days ago. [OC Weekly music editor] Nate Jackson, he was in the room when Wizz was mastering and finishing the mixtape. One skit led into another skit. I was able to keep creating, creating, and creating it. When it all came together at the end, I was like, “now I have Freethrows.”
On how Parx will push the new music this summer:
“I have a small 3-show tour. I have June 8 at the Detroit Bar. I have a July 14 show at the Constellation Room and that will be on 714 days. I'm also planning to do a free show at the Crosby August 22. In between all those shows, putting out 2 or 3 more videos, I'm also going to be doing a lot of groundwork in other cities outside of Orange County to try and get my buzz up. Maybe out of the country like Toronto, Canada. It's one of those things where I can't just tell somebody to download my mixtape. I really gotta give it to them, put it in their hand and get it heard. That's my main objective at this point.
Kevin Parx performs for his Freethrows mixtape release party at the Detroit Bar, 843 W. 19th Street, Costa Mesa. Sat., 8 p.m. $10. 21+
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!