New Jersey White Boy's Rap of the Week: Can't Wait by OnCue

OnCue is white. Well, I mean, I know you just saw his picture at the top of this article, but if you just heard his songs, it’d be hard to tell. He sounds like a black Drake (hip-hop zing!), given the singing/rapping mix that he does, but he still has that hunger in his voice and lyrics that up-and-coming rappers always have. There’s something about success that softens a rapper, and turns “Family Business” Kanye West to “Power” Kanye West (or interrupting Taylor Swift Kanye West. Or Fish Stick Kanye West. Or really any Kanye West between 2007 and 2010), which is weird, seeing as all they do is rap about how successful they are, even when they aren’t. But anyway, let’s see why he’s should be fed.

The first thing you should judge rappers on is their lyrics. The best productions and the best flow can’t save a rap song from laughable lyrics (well, it can, but people who like Lil Wayne are stupid). While he’s got the grind lyrics down, he still can spit some amazing verses, like “Cigarettes and Perfume”, which is about a one-night-stand, who left him because he just used her, and now that his life had gotten crazy, he needs her to keep him grounded, to know what’s real (by having sex with him). It really hits home when the female voice comes in saying “I just want to be loved/I don’t care about the sex/Because I just want to be loved”. That’s immediately followed on the tape by “Better Than Before”, a song about the people saying he’s not going anywhere with his career. Which sounds normal, until you realize that he’s talking about his girlfriend, who left him because of that conversation. Then he launches into a verse about his family, and how he blames himself for his dad almost overdosing, his mom’s poverty, and his teenage sister’s alcoholism. Heavy, personal stuff for a hip-hop album, especially given the more party-friendly songs that has been produced by white rappers like Asher Roth, Mac Miller and Sam Adams.

That’s not to say he doesn’t have his own fun songs. “Rich Kid” is backed by this happy synthesizer bouncing all over the place and a heavy bass hit, which builds to the driving drums, the claps, and the lofty, fun vocals of the hook. And the verses are a mixture of “worked my way to this point” and “I’m so totally awesome”; it’s the perfect song to throw on at a house party or a club. And then there’s “The Geoffrey”, a reference to the movie Get Him to the Greek, in which the Jeffery is “Weed mostly, but it’s got a bit of opium in it, heroin, crunched up E's, clorox, methadone, subutex, morphine, peyote, angel dust, and some other un-identifiable substances”. If you’ve seen the movie, and heard the lyrics, you’d know how perfectly it fits in; the song is about how OnCue (his real name is Geoffrey) grew up without a strong father figure, and lived his life figuring it out on his own. But it still strangely is a happy song; like he’s glad he had to figure everything out this way.

And hooks are just as good; they all tie the song together. Which is good, because he sings almost all of the hooks on his songs. While he may not have the strongest singing voice, he puts a lot of emotion into it, and really makes the song. You can hear the hopefulness on “Running”, a song about life is about to get better soon, and that he’s not running from anyone or anything, but running towards his dreams. “Cigarettes and Perfume” also has this ridiculously good hook. While the rapping on the track is very quiet and laid back, he launches into a very lofty and emotional singing voice. He laments about not knowing who he is, or who his girl is, but he knows where he needs to be, and that she needs to be on top of him. He knows how to keep his voice within his range, but still pack enough emotion behind it for you to think he’s good.

And let’s not forget about the beats. He usually gets his beats fresh off the oven by CJ Luzi, who seems to have worked with Cuey long enough to know exactly what would sound good underneath each song. He does most of the beats for OnCue, and has a lot of piano and muffled bass drums (OnCue has said that he’s a fan of indie rock, so it’s not surprising he’s a big fan of that). He’s also gotten 88-Keys to produce a beat for him (“Kinda Late”), and got Just Blaze to direct the video for that particular song, which features Mike Posner. If you know anything about rap music, you know how big of a deal it is to get 2 out of those 3 things (I’ll give you a hint; the “bad thing” is still probably cooler than me).

Let’s get off his music for a bit. With alternative rappers, about 40% of your success depends on your image. Odd Future has a “fuck everything” attitude and likes baggy skate clothes, Childish Gambino is a big fan of hipsterism and frequently is found with short shorts and a hoodie, and XV wears a backpack that has a copy of Marvel v Capcom 3 in it. This automatically draws your attention to this emcee, because no one else is currently doing anything like this in hip-hop, and gives something for people to attach themselves to (“hey, I like video games, I should listen to XV” or “Yo, fuck the police and parents and school. Fuck yeah Odd Future!”). But Cuey is weird. He’s just an average white kid. He’s not pretending to be more hood than he is, he’s not using some visual gimmick to grab attention, he’s just being a normal 20-something white male. He wears normal clothes, acts like a normal person, sounds like a normal person. And it’s so normal, that it’s weird. While it doesn’t necessarily draw in a specific demographic, it certainly doesn’t turn anyone away.

I shared “Cigarettes and Perfume” because it’s hands down my favorite track on this mixtape. Personal, melancholy, sexy, real. The guitar during the hook. The quiet beat. The high-pitched cowbell. The lazy synthesizer. It’s almost like OnCue made this song knowing that I would love it. Hell, I mentioned it twice up top, because I kept going back to it whenever I wanted an example of what Cuey can do and how good he is at doing it.

You can pick up his latest mixtape, Can’t Wait,off of Dat Piff for free (just click those words, it’ll bring you right there. I’m so nice, aren’t I?). So check out and support this dude. He’s going to make it big soon enough, and you should be there when he does.