In a lot of ways, hip-hop and pop have become almost indistinguishable from each other in the club, yet Ca $ell’s R&B version of it is sweet and smooth, with just a little chopped and screwed sizzurp drizzled on top. This makes sense, because even though there’s been a lot of hip-hop about slinging dope and a lot about smoking it, this music tries to have it both ways. Call it a soundtrack for the perpetually mellow hustler: It all comes across nice and easy without losing any of its street cred.

Despite the fact that there’s a little bit of trap-style noise sculpture in “Ballin’,” for example, this is slick stuff, brain candy, all stutter steps and acoustic guitars and synth gloss, a perfect soundtrack if you’re cruising or smoking (but not both, wink wink). It’s the kind of mixtape where a song like “Still Bouncin’” doesn’t bounce or twerk at all. It just kind of… limps, like the rest of the album. (Stoned is the way of the walk.) There are harder trunk tapes out there, to be sure, but none more professional sounding; the fire of this debut EP is, like the smoke itself, just this side of legitimate.