Whenever considering Cousin Stizz, the first question that comes to mind is just how the Boston rapper hasn’t yet become one of the biggest names in music. There is no one doing what he is at the moment. There is no one who writes like him, delivers like him, has energy like his. But there are many who are trying and will always come up short. Even through the innovative start to his young career and an undeniable explosion to his following and his stature on the global scene, Stizz is still getting slept on by the larger mainstream hip-hop audience. Since he hit the scene, three years, three concurrent albums. Suffolk County, Monda, One Night Only. 

 

And now, as 2018 draws into its final quarter, Stizz seems priming the release of what may become his fourth. All Adds Up, a three-track project released a month ago was the first we heard from Stizz in an uncharacteristically reclusive year. A month later, we have Cold Times, a project built of the same three-track construct and demonstrating the same unapologetic style that we’ve come to know and love. 

 

Mellow production, meditative flow, confident braggadocio, and a swinging kind of sway that gets everyone’s heads bobbing and toes tapping to the never-failing basslines. 

 

From Made to Butterfly to Brain Freeze, Stizz undergoes a series of melodic and emotional shifts. Occasionally finding his underappreciated sense of introspection and deep thought (Butterfly), while at other times playing with his addictive, amusing personality in the booth (Brain Freeze) and others still stunting to his signature (Made), Stizz with Cold Times puts his wide range and unique texture on wholesome display and readies the world for something bigger in the works.