More than a few people in my general social network ecosystem were quick to mention (or complain) how overfamiliar these tracks now are. Volpe seems to acknowledge A$AP as the elephant in the room by knocking out the first three productions he contributed to LiveLoveA$AP (“Palace”, “Bass”, “Wassup”) at the beginning of Instrumental Mixtape 2 as the first three tracks. But aside from Volpe’s own consistent knack for operatic, high-emotion bangers, a further focused production style, an excellent Tri Angle EP, and his general prolificness, Clams Casino owes a lot of his prominence to A$AP Rocky’s debut, LiveLoveA$AP (and vice versa). Each track on the new tape still includes the bracketed rapper who ultimately ended up claiming the beat and a couple artists who proved to be the most prominent on Instrumental Mixtape remain ever present on 2: Lil B and Main Attrakionz.
I can’t help but view Clams’ newest release, the free Instrumental Mixtape 2, as a neatly symmetrical bookend at one end of the fourteen month span that began with the New Jersey-based producer’s first free tape. In a little over a year Mike Volpe, aka Clams Casino has gone from the best kept secret in internet-based hip-hop production sorcery to major label-adorned A-lister.
