Houston’s self-proclaimed “King PEN” drops off his second project of 2016, the threeIVthree quickstrike EP.
Dante Higgins is just getting started. The Houston emcee and Breadwinner Music Group artist’s focus has been razor-sharp in 2016 and the work speaks for itself. Over the summer, Higgins unveiled his King PEN EP, his first project since his Good Forever album last November. King PEN packed potent messages and searing honesty in its seven tracks, and it could’ve held its own as Higgins’ only release of the year, especially given that the EP stand out cut “Black Lives Matter” was re-released as a single.
But the self-anointed Snotty Nose Bastard wasn’t done blessing his “HigHeadz” just yet.
On Friday, Higgins released yet another EP entitled threeIVthree, on the heels of releasing the titular freestyle at the start of the week. threeIVthree bears only one feature, with M.A.C. of Undergravity joining Dante on “Netflix & Chill”; on the production front, Jett I. Masstyr, Killa Tex, and Higgins’ producer partner in crime Charity E. Vaughn are on the boards for the three-track effort.
On threeIVthree’s opening freestyle, Higgins flexes his lyrical muscle, weaving in and out of Jett I.’s beat with the footwork of a pugilist. On “Netflix & Chill,” Higgins reinvents the concept, warily assessing how he’s seen the famous and the infamous come and go in the blink of an eye and why he’s more focused on self-improvement than spotlight. And outro track “F*k ‘Em” is one radio edit away from being Higgins’ first radio single, a blues-sampling groove on which Dante channels Kobe Bryant and dedicates two small words to his critics and detractors.
In a way, threeIVthree feels like a warm-up. Listeners can’t tell what it’s building up to, but it’s clearly laying the foundation for something… something BIG. Bigger than Houston? Possibly.
Stream Dante Higgins’s threeIVthree project down below by way of Apple Music, and grab the EP now on iTunes. As a bonus, you can watch the official music video for “3 for 3 Freestyle” for yourself down below as well.
