Your Old Droog YOUR OLD DROOG

New York rapper Your Old Droog's career got a jump-start with a case of mistaken identity. When Droog released a self-titled ten-song EP online in April of 2014, his raspy voice, effortless flow, and the throwback sound of his loop-heavy beats had some hip-hop fanatics convinced that "Your Old Droog" was simply an under-the-radar alias for rap superstar Nas. This speculation was aided by several nebulous references to Nas-related topics in the lyrics and production akin to DJ Premiere's strongest work in the early '90s, all of which gave the scrappy but incredibly strong EP a decidedly swaggering East Coast feel that aspired to the lofty heights of Nas' 1994 breakthrough, Illmatic. These rumors were soon disproved as Your Old Droog made his presence known more publicly, gaining enough steam from his online tracks to eventually expand the EP into a self-titled debut full-length. Listening to the the jazzy piano loops of tracks like "Nutty Bars" or the breezy, muted samples of "U 47," it