Playboy Tre is "way older than your average," as he points out towards the end of this warm-hearted, funny and end-to-end excellent rap mixtape Liquor Store Mascot. What "way older than your average" means in the world of rap usually means is "over 35," and indeed, Playboy Tre — the name probably made more sense when he came up with it as a cocky, womanizing twentysomething — has been kicking around Atlanta for years, slinging raps on the local underground circuit and writing hooks for other rappers. Liquor Store Mascot, released earlier this year with zero label backing, is a grown man's wry and rueful document of his many flaws, delivered in a dead-on perfect imitation of your salty, drunken uncle.

As the album title and art might suggest, Playboy has what you might call a "drinking problem" — but be careful saying that around him. Like most drunks, his love of the bottle is both an affliction and a perverse badge of honor, and the mixed-up bravado and shame with which he raps about his love affair with alcohol on the brilliant Gil Scott-Heron-sampling "Livin' In the Bottle" will break your heart. "I'm a blood-line sipper/I come from a history… read more »