The Predatory Wasp
Toro Y Moi isn’t adverse to popping up on as a featured artist on hip-hop tracks, but he rarely, if ever, actually raps. Should we count last year’s drawled verse on Blood Orange’s Dark & Handsome? No, we should not. He nails it here though, beefing up his usually relaxed considerably in order to cut through the glossy production and keep pace with MadeInTYO. All in all: a banger.
ROUGH 7 rolls along with a stumbling rhythm that – like a lot of JPEGMAFIA’s music – seems to be doing it’s very best to trip you up, briefly heading down tangents for a few bars before turning back, or stopping altogether, glitching back to the backbone of the track with a jarring quality that makes his music quite unlike anyone else working in rap. It’s unsettling, brilliant and sleazy as fuck.
Tiger Song is the last track on Startisha, the first album US rapper Naeem Juwan has recorded under his own name. Best known under his Spank Rock moniker, Naeem retired that alias a few years’ back as he became frustrated with the limitations it imposed. “When I chose that moniker I thought I would be able to grow and change as much as I wanted to. But the audience didn’t allow me to do that” he told NY Times in a recent interview. I’m not hugely familiar with his previous output, but Startisha absolutely sounds like an artist testing their own boundaries, and Tiger Song is a powerfully unsettling end to an intriguing LP.
“You already know I got bitches in Baguio. But, my family is from Olongapo in Zambales province. I also got family in Manila. So, like, I be out there. I really tap in with it. I literally know how to cook the tightest lumpia from scratch, chicken adobo, pancit, I even fucking eat balut!” (via Hip Hop DX)
Guapdad 4000 aka Bitcoin Batman aka Shia Labustdown aka Jean Fraud Van Scam aka Prada Prettiest aka Stone Cold Steve Flossin aka Valentino Viper aka Ferragamo Falcon.
I’ve always liked serpentwithfeet a lot more in theory than in practice, and have found a lot of his previous stuff a little impenetrable, even after multiple listens. A Comma is the first record of his I’ve liked immediately: it’s definitely way more accessible than anything on his last album, and his voice really shines when accompanied by this more stripped-back, less hectic production.
I just found out that Chynna died last week. She had a long history of drug addition and some mental health issues, and made (mostly) brutally nihilistic rap. She was only 25: way too young and ultimately a really sad story. This was one of my favourites of hers.
It’s pretty remarkable that someone as clearly talented as NNAMDÏ can release four albums before I’ve ever listened to a single piece of his music. Not that I’m by claiming to be an expert on Chicago rap by any means, but fairly surprising nonetheless. This is fantastic, as is the album it’s taken from, BRAT. And now I have an entire back-catalogue to explore as well.
This is taken from Yaeji’s debut album What We Drew, although she refers to it as a mixtape. I’m still not entirely sure what the difference is, despite multiple conversations and Google searches. Regardless, this is really, really good and the entire album/mixtape is definitely worth checking.
This is taken from the Jessie Reyes new album BEFORE LOVE CAME TO KILL US ALL, which I think is a really brilliant title. Not sure the album really lives up to it to be honest – it includes a couple of really forgettable features from Eminem and 6lack – but this is a total banger.
Groggy cloud rap meets downtempo breaks from Zak Arogundade aka Ecco2K. Includes the lyric “Crushing rocks with Oyster card, so nauseous, can’t sleep it off” which tells you everything you need to know about the tone. Does very little, but remains completely engaging throughout.
The Predatory Wasp 