Money's My Motivation

The booming “Through Your Hood Up” — the track that opens Kafani’s stellar debut, Money’s My Motivation — proves that Kafani is a talented MC with deep roots in the Bay Area sound. Though the juiced-up single “Fast Like A Nascar” has the disposable appeal of many hyphy singles, the remainder of Money’s My Motivation is filled with turf pounding beats drenched with otherworldly synth textures that recall the best work of Khayree, the legendary Oakland producer who laced Mac Mall, Ray Luv, Dubee Da Sugawolf and others with some of the mid-‘90s most innovative production work. Khayree’s fiercely original production aesthetic clearly informs the sound of bangers like “Thizzin’” which finds Kafani paying tribute to departed Bay Area legend Mac Dre over a sputtering trickily woozy synth loop, and the ferocious “What U Wanna Do” where Kafani is joined by inimitable Bay Area veteran Sann Quinn, who effortlessly trumps Kafani’s able but blocky rhymes to deliver what is undoubtedly the album’s strongest verse. Though not an out and out masterpiece, Money’s My Motivation boasts enough infectious energy to delight younger listeners, and a powerful sense of Bay Area history that ought to leave older heads nodding along in approval.