Steve 'Flash' Juon“No radio play but the streets love Lucky
E’rywhere I go these people takin pictures of me”
In theory I have no reason to dispute this assertion from “Streets Still Love Me” off Lucky Luciano’s album “2017 Reasons.” Before getting into why though I have to make one thing clear — I only know who Luciano is because of Baby Bash and South Park Mexican. The former featured him on an album in 2005 and the latter had him signed to Dope House Records for a time. I respect the hustle of everyone involved. While I think their Texas swagger transcends cultural or racial divides, there’s no doubt about the fact Bash and SPM have always repped for and supported Latino artists first. Christian Anthony Garcia b/k/a Lucky Luciano is a Houston rapper built for fitting into that mold perfectly. Speaking of H-Town legends though you can hear Lil’ Flip guesting on “Countin’ Money Up.”
Now that I’ve gone far enough to bury the lead there’s one unfortunate fact you need to know — South Park Mexican is a convicted sex offender. While it’s commendable that both Bash and Luciano stayed loyal to him in the beginning, SPM isn’t eligible for parole until 2047, and loyalty only gets you so far in this cold world. A majority of Luciano’s catalogue ultimately wound up on Steak N’ Shrimp Records (I assume that’s his own imprint but don’t know for sure) but curiously not “2017 Reasons.” This one’s attributed to the artist himself and GT Digital, the latter of which seems to have only served as a distributor. Despite his self-proclaimed street fame (which I have no doubt exists in Houston specifically and probably in Texas generally) this appears to be the exact moment his career fell off. He did a collaboration album with Bash the same year, one EP during the pandemic, and nothing since.
Boring songs like “I’m Comin’ Down” featuring Lil Koo are the reason why. This album is an hour long and needed more bangers, but a lot of the time Luciano is half-heartedly singing bars like “all my life I been a hustler” on tracks like “All My Life.” When he starts spitting (I’m sorry I have to be honest about this) you could swap Paul Wall in and not notice the difference. His cadence, his accent, everything he says or does is a dead ringer for Mr. Slayton. “I ain’t never been afraid of money” raps Luciano, and I like his “fuck the lotto” attitude, but you’ve heard the same sentiment from hundreds of rappers in and outside of the Lone Star State.
The worst part is hearing Luciano try to imitate the up-and-coming Soundcloud rappers of the era on songs like “Tropical Ballin.” The one thing Luciano could stake in the ground and claim as his turf was the fact he was a Houston original, a Latino rapper from Texas who still proudly proclaims he’s “from the Dope House dynasty” despite SPM’s prison sentence, but it holds no weight when the beat and the AutoTune turn him into a clone of rappers far younger than him. He didn’t need those elements on the song and the bars when he’s spitting prove it. The beat sounds more like A$AP Mob than Texas.
I could give you 2016 reasons not to fuck with “2017 Reasons.” I only need to give you ONE though and you can add on the rest yourself. What is that one? It’s BORING. Luciano never improved as a rapper even though he stayed down in the game for at least three decades. Lil’ Flip is a fine guest star but he alone can’t save this album, and the lack of Baby Bash here doesn’t help Looch either. This might have been acceptable at 30 minutes long but there’s just way too much filler and not enough killer here.