REVIEWSTabi Bonney, ‘The Summer Years’

6

• SPIN Rating:6 of 10

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    Spotify

Release Date: October 11, 2011
Label: Organized Rhyme

If you're unfamiliar with D.C. rapper Tabi Bonney, it's not for lack of effort on his part: He owns a clothing line, directs music videos, and floods the Internet with free music. Yet Bonney has always struggled to define himself artistically, until the charming, upbeat Postcard From Abroad, a mixtape released earlier this year. On this official debut album, he lapses into mimicry of blog-rap graduates Wiz Khalifa and Curren$y, but flosses convincingly, braggin' about hangin' with Winona Ryder on "Frontin'" and playing Lothario over Ski Beatz's lush funk groove on "Parachute."