Cut of the Day: "15 Cents," Mic Capes

The latest Concrete Dreams single is a mournful dissertation on the chokehold of poverty—but it's not without hope.

For almost a year now, St. Johns rapper Mic Capes has been teasing his full-length Concrete Dreams project, dropping a new single every couple weeks. Yesterday, he unleashed another one. Titled "15 Cents," the refrain references the early 2Pac single "I Get Around"—"Just another black man caught up in the mix/Trying to make a dollar out of 15 cents"—but the mood is hardly as celebratory as that '90s classic. Over airy production from Aviel, Capes' commanding voice grows increasingly anxious and angry as he struggles against the chokehold of poverty. The circumstances surrounding the song's release are also tragic—it's dedicated to Dion "Anthony" Matthews Jr., a friend of the MC killed in downtown Portland Sunday night. But Capes ends the track on a note of hope: "You've got to hold your head and fight to make it better/And understand this struggle shit don't last forever."

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