Singer/Songwriter/Rapper Eric Bellinger has recently dropped a mixtape for our listening pleasure titled Choose Up Season. Since the fall/winter season is coming up, the title of this mixtape references that this is quickly approaching which is also the time most people start cuffin’. I mean, having a girl to snuggle with during those long cold winters is always great. But then again, we don’t have any type of winter in LA unfortunately. Anyway, the title also references to his upcoming studio album, Cuffin Season which we will keep a close eye on.
The opening track is titled “Choose Up” and starts off with a great instrumental with a lot of bass to keep you hooked. Eric reminds us that his studio album is coming soon, so “don’t even trip.” His work ethic for this mixtape and album also are mentioned in this song with the lines “Cause while them niggas was on vacation, I was in the studio making songs for the radio.” Seems like Bellinger takes no days off, not even paid vacations it seems. The song ends with a scene from How High when Mike Epp’s character Baby Powder explains how he has pimp in his blood and he comes from a whole family of pimps.
The next song, “Valet”, quickly turns into something that you can vibe to right off the bat. Eric in this song is describing to a girl that has “everything that a nigga want.” His first verse starts off with him trying to spit game at a girl but the music playing where they’re at is too loud, so he’s trying to take her somewhere quiet. Teeflii comes in next and he let’s us know that he’s a fan of 69 and having his girl pour his drink and roll his weed. The holy trinity. Pleasure P ends the song by telling this girl that “They say time is money, and I ain’t spendin’ mine on a girl who gon’ drink my shit and go home with another nigga.” I feel him on this one. I’m not about to spend a dime or my time on a girl who’ll leave with the dude in the rented Beamer.
“House Party” comes in next, in which Eric throws a party at his house and invites a certain girl and tells her to bring her home girls with her too for his “day ones”. He says that him and his girl are going to be taking a lot of pictures that they can’t even post on social media because then his other girls might trip so he wants to keep this encounter on the low. As soon as she walks in the house, he’s not going to be “wasting no time trynna take it slow.” As the song ends, there’s a skit that probably was from the girl that Eric invited but just before she was leaving her house to hit up his house party.
The next song, “Night Bag”, starts quickly after the skit from the last song ends with a girl remembering to take her night bag before she heads to Eric’s pad. In this song, Eric talks about a girl that isn’t the type to want a quickie so she brings a night bag when she goes over to his house so she doesn’t have to go back to her crib the next morning for work. However, he says it can get a little too crazy when she opens up her bag and she damn near brought her whole wardrobe. And women still can’t find anything to wear either. But he doesn’t care too much because as many clothes that she brings, they’re all coming off once she steps foot in his house.
“The Pillow” is a little slower than his other songs have been, and that’s because Eric is being a little more careful on how he fornicates with this girl. He’s gonna make sure that she talks to her pillow while he “slides inside”. You can figure what he’s sliding on your own. In the second verse, he knows that this girl wants it when she’s texting him because she’s been sending him emojis all day. The heart eyes, the winky, the tongue next to the banana. This girl knows all the emojis to get the message across to Mr. Bellinger. He’s lucky, all I ever get is read-receipted. That’s gotta be the worst.
“Night Owls” comes in next with a slow, night time beat in which he’s wondering what this girl is gonna do when the night calls. But he’s sure that she’ll be with him while they stay up with the night owls. He takes a second before each verse to acknowledge the pretty girls who are just “looking for a little trust” and also the freaky girls “who know just what they want and ain’t afraid to tell you” because their honesty has attracted him more to them.
The next song is titled “Never Be Together” in which Eric talks about a girl that had him as a side guy and he was fine with that, but she’s trying to wife him now, which he knows ain’t right. Him and this girl had made an agreement to “never be together” which she was now taking back and wanted to cuff him for good. He’s not that mad at this girl but he’s just trying to remind her on what they had agreed on, especially since she has been trying to make it work with her main dude.
The second to last song, “Casual”, ft Teyana Taylor continues the theme about his girl trying to take things too quickly when they had already had good chemistry while having a “casual love” between them both. Now, his girl is tripping whenever he goes out to the club and whenever he doesn’t pick up his phone. But I mean, if he has an iPhone then I understand why he won’t pick up, the battery is probably dead already. Anyway, he used to love the times when his girl was never in a rush and the last thing on her mind was forever.
The final song on this tape is “Awkward”, the hit that gave this tape more hype and also features Game. In it, they focus on the awkward situations that can rise up after a relationship is over which is something we can all relate to. He talks about how his ex girl still texts her mom and likes his sister’s pictures online and trying to hang out with his homies. The hook is very Frozen like in terms that Eric takes a page from Elsa’s terminology and tells his ex girl to “let it go.” Game ends the song by telling her that he would hate to break her heart, but he does so anyway. Ruthless. He tells his former girl that there’s plenty of “other fish in the sea so take a swim” and that “she trynna work it out, I told her save that for the gym.” That’s that new workout plan.
I give this tape 3/5 roses.
–Jay Lopez
