London, England, United Kingdom producer Decksterror returning with his 2nd extended play Originally known under the moniker G-Man, he would form Hollow Sun Records alongside Cosm in the spring of 2020 a couple weeks after the COVID-19 pandemic began & eventually made his full-length solo debut with Black/Gold Stash a couple years later. Signed to the Croydon underground imprint Hidden Hobby Records as an in-house producer, he made his debut for the label with Love & Honour and has dropped the highly anticipated follow-up.
“Democracy Manifest” by Ill Sykes, Kakarot & Lomax opens with the trio spitting hardcore bars over a boom bap instrumental whereas “The Source Code” by Lomax lets everyone know what this shit’s really all about. “Terminal Horizon” by Ill Sykes works in some horns to talk about his words being more effective than sticks & stones while “Tony Stark / Speed of a Train” by Murkerz gets the 2nd half of the EP going with a dusty 2-parter.
Body Bag Ben & DreMilla appear together on “P.A.K. (What Does It Mean?)” talking about their respective pens slicing anyone who dares to step up to them in a rap battle while “The Golden Eye” by Juga-Naut, Micall Parknsun, Montener the Menace & Teach ‘Em ends on a more luxuriously rawer note talking about how they made a pledge when it comes to the artform & those who ain’t do shit having the inability of complaining because ain’t a game to them unless anyone else has actually played it.
A little over a month since DJ Sam Seed introduced himself artistically bridging The Unaligned, we’re now being treated to a Love & Honour sequel that reached the bar it’s predecessor had set & continues what could be Hidden Hobby Records’ biggest year yet. There are some slight improvements within the list of guests most notably towards the backend of it, but it’s really Deckterror’s production that really shines the most.
Atlanta, Georgia rapper & producer 9 Vicious dropping his 4th studio LP a week after doing adlibs for Ye formerly known as Kanye West’s 9th albumBully. Breaking out in 2024 off his debut single “U Fancy”, he would go on to further introduce himself on B4SA & the full-length debut Studio Addict helped him gain more exposure to the point where Young Thug signed him to YSL Records after B4TM dropped & Tumblr Music wasn’t that bad of a debut for the label other than “Clout Demons”.B4FN & For Nothing have both become the best things he’s made since the YSL deal, departing when the Uy Scuti Bøyz consisting of diamond* & Tezzus signed. B4EM in January was mostly carried by the production & was curious to hear how Emotions would be following the biggest co-sign of 9’s career yet.
“Talk About It” produced by 406ahmad samples “The Meaning of Love” by Steve Kuhn speaking of people wanting to know how he made it prior to “Amazing” flipping “Sex with Me” by Rihanna thanks to Patrick Garza telling a MILF he ain’t tryna cheat on her. “Posing Tonight” splits itself into 2 halves to depict the gangsta lifestyle until “Rolling Loud” celebrates his upcoming performance at the festival whilst dissing OsamaSon & che.
A couple of A$AP Rocky’s greatest tracks “Fashion Killa” & “Purple Swag” get heavily sampled on the next few songs using the exact same names although I’d rather put on the original versions of them just before “Clock It” talks about having a stripper bitch. “Trevon O’Ryan Echols” will easily go down amongst 9 Vicious’ more profound songs admitting that it’s not easy being him while “Vivienne Westwood (R.I.P.) / O.G. Got the Drop” continues from there with another 2-parter talking about being a real punk.
“Want U” finds himself coming out as bisexual & I’m not trying to say that’s a bad thing in any way shape or form because there are plenty of LGBTQ+ artists I’ve covered in the past, but it doesn’t necessarily surprise me. “Project4Play / SVJ” divides itself in a couple different portions dissing both Tezzus & Young Thug while “Molly Ecstasy” hops over an cloudy R8 beat with heavy 808s, although bars like “she give that head like a MAGA hat” don’t really do it a whole lot of justice.
Kacy Hill producing “Sunset Hill” seems appropriate considering she was signed to G.O.O.D. Music at 1 point, working in a guitar so 9 can represent YSL when he was literally firing shots at Thug earlier. “U Dig Det” continues the 2nd half talking about giving a fuck less regarding all the cap he sees when he wakes up while “My Whole Heart” promises his lover that he’ll give her his all, although the “Listen Up Jews” nod at the end of the 1st verse made me cringe.
“Julia” talks about being in Los Angeles & a woman by that name calling him spewing a whole lot of nothing the way he sees it while “Need” takes a shot at Afrobeats to ask his bae what she needs from him. The instrumental on “Love Album” isn’t any issue although the overly sexual lyrics get quickly tiring while “Italy” responds to Tezzus pulling up to his mother’s house by claiming that it didn’t bother him & how he wouldn’t ever cheat on the person who has his heart when he probably is unfaithful.
Rounding out 3rd, we have 9 trying to make the classic MGMT single “Electric Feel” into his own down to 406ahmad sampling it & “Life’s Funny” samples “Ironic” by “Alanis Morissette” to talk about God having an interesting way of telling him this chick’s the one. “Forgot” confesses to being so locked in to the point where it slipped his mind that he was in a relationship & “Blowing Emotions” sends off the album with 1 more 2-parter talking about having so many feelings.
It was confirmed earlier this week by ApolloRed1 that the collaborative project he & 9 Vicious have been planning for a year has now been scrapped because of 9 taking issue with Apollo doing a feature for OsamaSon & although I did wind up enjoying Emotions a little more than the prelude at the end of January, it’s not by a whole lot. I’ll reiterate the praise I’ve always had regarding his ear for production, although I still adamantly believe his whole shtick of beefing with everyone & “homaging” as many musical icons imaginable to be running dry.
Pretty sure this has to be the 7th EP from Toronto, Ontario, Canada emcee Daniel Son. A member of the Brown Bag Money collective, his profile began to rapidly increase in the underground off projects like the Giallo Point-produced debut mixtape The Gunners or the Futurewave-produced sophomore album Yenaldooshi. He also teamed up with Raz Fresco for the spectacular collab album Northside paying homage to the roots of the Toronto hip hop scene & a few months after reuniting with Futurewave for the first time since Son Tzu & the Wav.God on Bushman Bodega & the Finn-produced Hare Brained Schemes a few months later. Almost a whole year since Baggage Claims though, he & Futurewave are running it back for Shattered Glass a week after Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling (MLP) founder Scott D’Amore crowned The Good Brothers as the inaugural & shortest reigning MLP Canadian Tag Team Champions.
“Old Starter Kit” hops over a drumless jazz loop to talk about doing this shit for his own legacy’s sake whereas “Lil Earl” instrumentally goes for a boom bap vibe so he can discuss cookin’ ‘em all in the same pot. “Shipping Container” has this lo-fi quality to the beat talking about ordering more if you want to pay less prior to “Ticket Sales” featuring Asun Eastwood teaming up so bottom of them can discuss making any money rather than not bringing any in at all.
Moving on from there, “Bear Steaks” strips the drums to talk about making it out of the storm & finding his own directions while “Kolors on Queen” continues to embrace a lo-fi boom bap sound speaking of keeping his head on a swivel during his late night strolls. “Ocean Smock” featuring Sayzee finds the 2 joining forces to talk about the recoil from their firearms making shoulders pop while “Shotgun Draw” clarifies to those who were sending shots at him that they wound up completely missing.
“Broke Routine” winds down Shattered Glass’ final moments observing that some not being built to take any fall while “Late for Dinner” talks about seeing a ghost rockin’ in the hallway making noises every day of the week. “Hogwash” goes drumless again so he can express his belief of the musical oversaturation getting out of control & after “Bow Flesh” prays for chaos to balance his good days, the outro “All My Dice” finishes by talking about his future looking brighter than his past.
Taking the foundation of Soundwave & approaching it in his own way, Daniel Son builds on the energy of the beats & pushes it into something new with Shattered Glass after what had initially started as a simple idea quickly turned into something else with it’s completely separate identity. The transitions & pacing, are chaotic in the best way possible, but it never loses direction by maintaining the intentionally raw & unpredictable feeling.
Brand new studio LP & the 7th altogether from Santa Monica, California emcee, producer & singer/songwriter Earl Sweatshirt. Beginning his career almost 2 decades ago using the alias Sly Tendencies as the son of Cheryl Harris & late poet Keorapetse Kgositsile, he posted a handful of tracks for a mixtape called Kitchen Cutlery on MySpace, but the tape would never be released to this day. He formed a short-lived rap trio with 2 of his friends called The Backpackerz & planned to release a mixtape together titled World Playground, but they disbanded sometime in 2009. Shortly after, he joined Odd Future & appeared on their 2nd & final mixtape Radical that May. 10 months later, he put out his only mixtape to date Earl with OF’s de facto leader Tyler, The Creator producing a bulk of it. The tape received a lot of buzz until Earl’s mother would send him to a therapeutic retreat school for at-risk boys in Samoa sometime after until February of 2012. He was then granted his own Columbia Records imprint Tan Cressida Records & released his full-length debut Doris a decade ago to critical acclaim right before I started my junior year of high school for his clever rhyme schemes & the gritty production from The Neptunes to even the RZA. He then formed the duo Hog Slaughta Boyz with OF affiliate Na’kel at the beginning of 2015 & released his sophomore album I Don’t Like Shit, I Don’t Go Outside. a couple months after. Many of which consider to be better than Doris for its darker aesthetic. Some Rap Songs not only wound up being my 2018 Album of the Year, but the bastard child of one of my all-time favorite albums: Madvillainy. Feet of Clay the year after marked a new distribution deal Tan Cressida signed with Warner Records was a cool collection of SRS outtakes preluding his full-length debut on the label Sick!, which the flawless Voir Dire produced by one of my top 10 producers of all-time The Alchemist cleared. Last summer’s Live Laugh Love detailed his experiences of becoming a father & has brought the Surf Gang in to produce Utility.
“this2shallpass” clarifies over an ambient plugg beat from Evilgiane & Harrison that the only destination going forward is up whereas “:( again :)” goes for a more general plugg vibe talking about finding the strength to get up again. The 3rd & final single “Home on the Range” instrumentally combines plugg & trap confessing he’s not quite over the hill yet while “React” talks about going from basic to advanced training.
Meanwhile on “Hot Water (Cahuilla)”, we have Earl laughing off the idea of him folding & that the hate on the way down be the realest just before “Rectangle Lens” goes for a more experimental vibe talking about shit getting more serious by the day. “Leadbelly”featuring MIKE blends plugg, cloud rap, ambient & experimental hip hop putting a minimal emphasis on each of their distinctively abstract styles just before “quikk” feels like a 2 minute compositional intermission.
“Ew!” would rank amongst my top 5 tracks from the beat to the lyrics about anyone trying him only stumbling & stacking up all kinds of cheese in the cut while the lead single “Earth” combines cloud rap, ambient plugg, lowend & experimental hip hop speaking of having to scratch the surface so he could breathe. “Chali 2na” compares himself to the Jurassic 5 member of the same name & references WWE Hall of Famer Mr. T while “Sisyphus” talks about freezing over Hell on a daily basis.
Lerado Khalil joins Earl on “Locusts” to discuss how they’re steaming now rather than smoking while “Tour de France” talks about a little mouthful whenever he’s feeling content. “Chicago” compares himself to a merchant the way he stays outside while “Book of Eli” assures he won’t ever go away despite quieting down here & there. “AOK” looks back at when all he wanted was a tub & his father while “Don’t Worry!” sends it all off talking about him deserving to be burnt the 1st time around.
Right when “Making the Band (Danity Kane)” came out on SoundCloud a couple years ago, I knew the possibility of the Surf Gang producing an entire body of work for Earl Sweatshirt was a guaranteed & it’s as brilliant as I would’ve imagined. I already prefer the production more than Live Laugh Love mostly because it’s a lot different than what those who’ve become familiar with Earl’s discography would expect, expanding on the previously mentioned loosie’s cloudy plugg ideas & demonstrating his capability of rapping over anything.
Here we have the 9th studio LP from Livingston, New Jersey emcee & 10k Global founder MIKE. Breaking out a decade ago off his debut mixtape Winter New York, he would continue to make a name for himself by churning out 4 more tapes as well as his previous 6 albums & 8 EPs full of amongst the finest abstract hip hop that you’ll hear within the last decade. Standouts include May God Bless Your Hustle, War in My Pen & even the Wiki collab effort Faith is a Rock entirely produced by The Alchemist. Burning Desire, Pinball, its sequel & Showbiz! have all become acclaimed for their own different reasons too & he looks to raise the stakes by having the Surf Gang produce Pompeii.
“The Fall” comes out the gate jumping over an Evilgiane beat to talk about swerving the most overseas whereas “My Worst (Rebuke)” produced by Harrison takes a more psychedelic approach instrumentally admitting that he’s gonna do everything he did at his lowest once more. “Da Bid” featuring Jadasea joins forces for a 2-parter talking about wearing their hearts on their sleeves just before “NOT 4TW” featuring Anysia Kym cloudily speaks of no longer paying attention to those copying because it ain’t for free.
An early favorite would have to be “The Pope” from the euphoric beat to the calmly delivered lyrics about staying remote leading into “Afro” him recollecting the craziness of how much love has passed. The lead single “Minty” blends plugg, trap, cloud rap, lowend & plugg taking jabs at supposed gangstas who take talents off LinkedIn just before Niontay provides my 2nd favorite guest appearance on “F.E.A.R.”, spitting hardcore verses back-to-back without the need of a hook.
“Tampering” only clocking at 73 seconds long is a shame considering that I really enjoy the plugg instrumental talking about having to interfere with a hoe while “Shutter Island” happens to be the exact same length talking about trusting lies & bloody swords over a beat that somewhat reminds me of Odd Future’s early output. “Back LA” featuring Na’Kel Smith links up so they can speak of living in danger while the 2nd & final single “Back Home” passionately talks about dismantling systems.
Earl Sweatshirt joins MIKE for “Kirkland”, saving would I personally considered to be the best feature for last to wind down the last few minutes of the album discussing keeping it simple when doing it big while “#FREE #MIKE” talks about the surprising revelation that even his haters are happy his crew’s around & not changing up on family. “Man of the Month” spends the last 3 minutes explaining that he bled for his dreams to be lived out despite the other half of it being a simple outro.
Both entries of the Pinball series & Showbiz! all contain some of MIKE’s greatest tracks like “On God” for example, but my favorite song on the latter “Belly 1” exponentially raised my expectations for Pompeii & it sure enough isn’t too far behind May God Bless Your Hustle or Burning Desire for a spot in the top 3 of his entire catalog. The Surf Gang’s production emphasizes the plugg undertones of Pinball II, additionally sprinkling hints of cloud rap & ambient plugg to reflect on the destruction of civilization as we know it.
This is the 4th studio LP from Los Angeles, California duo Coyote. Consisting of the Morales brothers LadiesLoveGuapo & Ricky Blanco, they went on to gain traction in late 2022 off their debut album Thicker than Water noted for its witty punchlines & East coast influences. Their 2024 sophomore effort L.Aliens quickly became their breakout project to the point where people were recommending to me & easily understood the appeal, coming off yoteLAndia to have Statik Selektah fully produce Machetes & Micheladas in it’s entirety a month after Penta became the new WWE Intercontinental Champion.
After the “ApeXzibit” intro, the first song “Gimme a Hell Yeah!” featuring Conway the Machine joins forces over a boom bap instrumental to spit hardcore gangsta lyricism whereas “No Rest for the Wicked” ruggedly talks about there being a blizzard outside. “Whippin’ Cream” featuring The Psycho Realm brings both groups together for a mafioso single discussing the paper just before “Blasphemy” talks about looking to trade narcos for vitamins & fish oils.
“Love Me Love Me Not” keeps the boom bap vibes going admitting that they’re unsure & after the “Shoebox Money” interlude, the actual “Shoebox Money” track itself featuring Sirrealist goes for a jazzier direction talking about getting what they deserve. “Nothing Changes If Nothing Changes” featuring Curren$y soulfully gets on some real life shit topically while “Letter to My Son” featuring Berner gets the 2nd half going talking about fatherhood.
John Solo’s appearance on “Cali Dreaming” was ok despite the soulful beat & the love they have for their hometown but after the “Welcome to America” interlude, “What’s Peace?” featuring Locksmith & R.A. the Rugged Man finds the quartet taking a more conscious approach to songwriting. “Kid Named Johnny” simultaneously gets in their storytelling bags & continue to demonstrate Statik’s ear for sampling while “I.D.K” talk about only having winners surrounding themselves.
“Cortez on My Feet” featuring Lil Mr. E nears towards the end of Machetes & Micheladas with a nostalgic boom bap flavored sneaker anthem of their own while “Fuck Everybody” featuring Daylyt aggressively embodies that “Fuck the World” mentality the late 2Pac was on. “Church” hooks up a crooning vocal flip making a bunch of witty religious references while “Huff & Puff” sends it all off with a jab at the people who get their egos hurt by their presence.
Being a fan of these guys for a couple years already, the teasers we’ve gotten ahead of Machetes & Micheladas gave me all the confidence of LadiesLoveGuapo & Ricky Blanco topping both L.Aliens & yoteLAndia. Lo & behold: They begin the 2nd quarter of 2026 with what’s undeniably the greatest thing they’ve ever made. Statik Selektah’s jazzy boom bap production is a huge improvement over Coyote’s last couple of full-lengths, the guest list is filled with heavy hitters & the Morales brothers themselves are in top form.
Swae Lee is a 32 year old rapper & singer/songwriter from Tupelo, Missouri who began his career as part of Dem Outta St8 Boyz alongside Bobo Swae as well as Lil Pantz & Slim Jxmmi. The latter of whom would stick by him following the departure of the other 2 members & signed to Mike WiLL Made-It’s own label Ear Drummer Records in tandem with Interscope Records as the duo Rae Sremmurd not too long afterwards. His subsequently made his solo debut in 2018 dropping Swaecation to mixed reception, returning 8 years later for a sophomore effort.
Tomato/Tomáto” produced by 30 Roc wasn’t actually that bad of an intro referencing WWE Hall of Famer, 6-time WWE world champion, WWE Intercontinental Champion, WWE United States Champion, WWE Tag Team Champion, WWE Hardcore Champion, IWGPヘビー級チャンピオン, the inaugural 6-time TNA World Champion, TNA X Division Champion & 2-time TNA World Tag Team Champion Kurt Angle whereas “No Call No Show” featuring ΠΔV continues with this mediocre pop rap cut.
Ging jumps behind the boards on “Everyone Wants” addressing someone who has what the rest desires while “The Gospel” hops over a cloudy Turbo instrumental to talk about being on autopilot. “Mural” featuring Jhené Aiko comes together for an R&B duet singing of their awareness regarding bad bitches needing someone to treat properly leading into “Side Eye” telling a woman he took to Santa Monica that she can’t expect him to ask her hand in marriage.
“E Off Emotion” locks in with both Mike WiLL Made-It & Pluss for a trap soul ballad singing that he’ll blow all the racks with his romantic interest while “Suitcase” featuring French Montana felt like an underwhelming note to end the 1st half on, addressing the type they’d put away. “Don’t Even Call” featuring Rich the Kid doesn’t start the other leg of the album any better despite the reference to UFC CEO Dana White, but “Flammable” kicked off the whole rollout experimenting with rage & missing the landing.
The tropical vibes of “FAV / ANNA” are merely passable even if I can’t say the same for this story he tells regarding a chick who he assumes left a man in shambles & after singing about a female who’s “Sneakier” than most leaving the final verse completely open over a Chopsquad DJ beat, “Raising Awareness” expressing his desire of dying with memories instead of dreams over London on da Track cooking up one of the finest instrumentals on the entire LP.
“Working Remote” by Rae Sremmurd reunites over a Mike WiLL beat to talk about shining in the dark while “Violet” explains to female he seemingly loved to death that he had to walk away so he could focus on his mental health. “Take My Heart” featuring Post Malone ends Same Difference with this synthpop outro advising their partners to put their hearts somewhere safe, although I don’t think it’s as cute as “Sunflower” was.
Most including myself weren’t head over heels for Swaecation or Jxmtro when SR3MM dropped in 2018, preferring the main course rather than either Swae Lee or Slim Jxmmi’s attempt at making their own versions of Speakerboxxx / The Love Below. I’ve since been hoping Swae would follow up Swaecation & artistically surpass it, except it’s somehow worse. He’s always been the most melodic Rae Sremmurd member of the 2 & that doesn’t change as many would expect, although the production’s more uninteresting.
Memphis, Tennessee rapper, songwriter, producer & record executive Juicy J celebrating his birthday weekend with his 15th mixtape. Rising to stardom 3 decades earlier as the co-founder of the seminal Three 6 Mafia alongside his Tear Da Club Up Thugs cohorts DJ Paul & the late Lord Infamous, he’s also had the most successful solo career out of everyone in the Mafia whether it be the Taylor Gang Entertainment/Columbia Records-backed Stay Trippy & Rubba Band Business: The Album or more recently Crypto Business & Mental Trillness. The latter & it’s sequel noticeably taking on a more serious tone than some of Juicy’s latest material, taking a good chunk of it’s time coping with Gangsta Boo’s untimely passing. Coming off the mature Ravenite Social Club and the Logic-produced Live & in Color, we’re being treated to the inaugural entry of The Trippy Tapes.
Lex Luger combines some horns & hi-hats during the intro “I Don’t Shoot Dice” explaining that nothing’s nice regarding Juicy prior to “Cold Game” talking about everyone working with the feds these days. “Same Way” gives some advice in the fact that some of our Day 1s won’t be here when the money finally starts coming in leading into “Betta Not” featuring G9nstaB9by finds the 2 moderately talking about spending checks & referring to themselves as heavyweight.
“Trim the Circle” moves forward urging everyone to cut off all the bullshit energy surrounding them just before “Ain’t No Way” calls cap on someone claimin’ to still cop J’s when they can’t even afford their own car. “On da Low” gives off a heavy Memphis vibe talking about smoking dope out in California & keeping it lowkey while “Show Me” clarifies that he doesn’t give a fuck what people say, opting to watch what they be doing instead.
Lil Wyte joins Juicy for “I Smoke Earth” talking about their love of the dankest weed they get their hands on while “Backshots” takes a more sexual approach topically, which isn’t surprising considering the name. “A.D.B.F. (All Dese Bitches Fuckable)” keeps the raunchy subject matter going talking about the sexiness of all the women surrounding him while “Don’t Play With” angrily comes at the throats of those spewing craziness out their mouths.
“Victim” nears the end of the 1st leg talking about the unbelievability of those acting tough on social media only to flip the switch when shit hits the fan while “Speak in Gold” flexes that he manifests checks whenever he opens his mouth. “Day Walker” samples “The Rain” by Oran “Juice” Jonesso he can talk about a hoe his family nor TMZ will ever catch in public by his side while “I Wanna Baby” confesses he has no issues with women who act ratchet.
BeatKing & Wiz Khalifa both appear on “42” delivering an anthem to be played as part of their individual birthday celebrations prior to him trying to bring the “Real N***a Era” back over a Memphis-driven instrumental. “4 da Chat” encourages a stripper to bend it over & throw it back for everyone watching his livestream while “Yeah Dat Thur” talks about his lifestyle, including only blowing gas & carrying a Goyard bag full of money around.
“Last Time” keeps it rollin’ advising to keep a firearm on ya because of the streets being cold blooded while “You Not That” talks about having no one around him unless you’ve got ice in your veins. “Had to Do It” featuring Wiz Khalifa reunites the pair for a song I enjoyed more than “42”, explaining they had to cut their bitches off because they didn’t have a choice while “Shrooms” talks about consuming psilocybin although it’s not really my thing.
It was cool to hear Babyfxce E laying a verse out for Scotty” although I’m personally not the biggest fan of him on top of Juicy having the better performances of the 2 & after “Gofers” spends 110 seconds going at the throats of clout chasers who’ll literally go for anything to receive attention in return, “Like This” poses the question of what these cornballs will do when shit gets low & not having to make any complaints about the cars & house he owns.
“Sneaky” featuring RJtheWeirdo wraps up The Trippy Tapes’ encore turning up the Memphis influences telling a promiscuous woman who can’t keep her legs closed to meet them outside while “Stash” featuring G9ngstaB9by reunites both of them 1 last time letting everyone who wants to book them know that they wait to be paid in full first. The self-produced “Power” featuring La Reezy sends it all off shifting their focus from money to control.
Hearing that Lex Luger producing a vast majority of this inaugural entry of The Trippy Tapes raised my anticipation for it considering how well he & Juicy J have worked with each other in the past, but I wound up a bit divided towards the end result coming away from it. Granted the production’s an improvement over Head on Swivel, although there are some filler that should’ve been included on the sequel & some of the guests are underwhelming.
Another full-length studio LP & the 10th overall from Toronto, Ontario, Canada rapper Tory Lanez. Blowing up over a decade ago off The New Toronto mixtape, he ended up signing with Interscope Records the following year & releasing a total of 4 albums until departing at the beginning of 2020.Daystar that same fall gaslit everyone after shooting Megan Thee Stallion in the foot & coming off the dreadful sequel Peterson last spring that’re both considered to be the absolute worst music he’s ever made, he’s creating a new subgenre he’s been calling Slutty Bass.
“Slide” begins with him talking about pulling up your city with .40 & a Glock on him over an Atlanta bass instrumental when that’s not quite a good look for him whereas “Bulma’s Patience” disses Megan Thee Stallion by calling her bogus & blaming her for his incarceration. “Aggression from Saturn” mediocrely sings about being unsure whether or not he likes it that his partner’s aggressive just before “Planet Bass (NBLYB)” brings back the Atlanta bass vibes flexing that he has beat & millions of dollars.
We have Tory interpolating “Nokia” by Drake on “WongTong Soup” so he can tell this woman who says she wants to date him that she’s already with the wrong one leading into him bastardizing “Material Girl” by Madonna during “Pink Material” & falling completely flat. “Keyz to Vampa” assures his lover he’ll give her the guide on how to cherish him as long as she doesn’t judge while “The Hate of Friends” attacks this chick’s friends for disliking him.
“S.M.O. (Slut Me Out)” starts the 2nd half with me wanting to listen to Amaarae’s single of the same name considering that it’s far more superior while “Janne’s Cotton Candy” makes a bunch of trite references regarding being infatuated towards the very female he’s writing this about. “Krillin’s Fumble” confesses to an ex-girlfriend that he still has feelings for her when they’ve already broken up while “Fyne Shit Paradise” dedicates itself all to the fellas that got their heart broken & still can’t leave shorty alone.
Finally nears further towards Slutty Bass’ conclusion, “Nobody Land” vents the hatred he has for someone he used to love more than himself that was seeing somebody else while “Best Birthday Ever” tries to make his create his own version of tracks like “B.B. (Birthday Bitch)” by Krizz Kaliko & T-Pain or “Ratchet Happy Birthday”, the latter being one of Drake’s worst songs. “Party 4 Martians” uneventfully ends the album boasting he has 54 bitches on his dick, wanting to get naughty with all of them.
In no way am I trying to insinuate that I don’t like Atlanta or Miami bass because there’s a handful of music taking inspiration from both of those scenes that I enjoy, but Slutty Bass feels like Tory Lanez taking both of those styles & doing what artists like Cash Cobain or even Chow Lee have been doing with sexy drill for the past couple years. The lyrics are pretty much what I expected out of the 1 Umbrella Records founder this deep in his career & the production continues to top itself in terms of being uninteresting.
Sunn O))) is a drone metal duo from Los Angeles, California consisting of bassists/guitarists Greg Anderson & Stephen O’Malley. Their full-length debut ØØ Void & the sophomore effort Flight of the Behemoth respectively were both solid, dropping the latter after forming their own label Southern Lord Records. White1 alongside it’s sequel White2 & more specifically Black One all increased their popularity, the latter being my favorite in the Sunn O))) catalog. Oracle was great too, following it up with their 2nd best in my opinion: Monoliths & Dimensions. 观世音 however might be the band’s worst, coming off the more positively received Life Metal & Pyroclasts to make their Sub Pop Records debut with their 11th studio LP.
“XXANN” epically kicks things off with this 18 & a half minute drone metal composition whereas the doom metal-influenced “Does Anyone Hear Like Venom?” comes through with an ode to the pioneering black metal band Venom. The hypnotically repetitive 2nd & final single “Butch’s Guns” ends the 1st leg containing some of the strongest riffs throughout the full-length prior to “Mindrolling” experimenting with nature recordings. “Everrett Moses” continues the other half blending doom metal & dark ambient while “Glory Black” ends with a fusion of drone metal, ambient, nature recordings & impressionism reminiscent of Earth 2: Special Low Frequency Version.
Life Metal was easily the most I’ve personally enjoyed a Sunn O))) album since Monoliths & Dimensions, but Pyroclasts was almost as great & this new eponymous offering from the drone metal veterans under Sub Pop demonstrates Greg Anderson & Stephen O’Malley willingness to evolve their unmistakable sound into bold new forms. They’re predominantly taking it back to their roots outside of the dark ambient, nature recordings, drone, doom metal, ambient & impressionism undertones handling all of the instrumentation by themselves rather than bringing some outside collaborators in.
Legends Will Never Die 