Back in the mid- to late 2000s, Max B was a mixtape mainstay. The Harlem rapper parlayed his brief ByrdGang tenure and Dipset connection into his own wavy movement, his Million Dollar Baby and Public Domain installments keeping the streets regularly fed. At the time the original Coke Wave tape dropped, his partner on the project, French Montana, was still fairly early in his come-up, soon to become an inescapable presence. But their alliance on that project and its swift successors Coke Wave 2 and Goon Music 2.0 proved one of rap’s most enduring, despite a lengthy period of incarceration for Max that finally ended in late 2025.
Making up for lost time, the reunited duo revive their best-known series for the technically consequential Coke Wave 3.5: Narcos. From the get-go, their chemistry remains fully and undeniably intact, latching on to a shared proprietary lexicon with the opening pair of singles “Make America Wavy Again” and “Whippin That Wave.” Following a música-mexicana-inspired skit, they adopt their alternate Don Snow and Montega monikers for the cinematic and self-assured “Narcos.”
Though his distinctive sense of melody prevails, Max’s voice has noticeably grown grizzled during his lengthy absence, which lends a greater weight to moments like the triumphant yet grateful “Be All You Can Be.” French, on the other hand, proves as polished and mellifluous as ever, providing gratifying contrast with his freed associate on “Bulletproof Maybach” and the disco inferno “Ever Since U Left Me.”
As should be expected, Coke Wave 3.5 boasts a nostalgic bent. The Harry Fraud producer drop on “Effortless” instantly calls back to the glory days of Montana’s Coke Boys mixtapes, as does the presence of a posthumous contribution from late Queens MC Chinx over the bluesy boom-bap of “N***a Like Me.” Max reunites with his old Vigilante Season cohort Dame Grease for the downright groovy solo joint “I Don’t Know,” yet the team-ups here with Metro Boomin, like “Serenation” and the aptly named “Metro Wave,” demonstrate how well his seminal style fits in with this contemporary era.
