By
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November 02, 2022
October’s round-up of the ten most important new hip-hop releases to hit Bandcamp features a MC’s nostalgic journey again to the times of crafting home made radio mixtapes, a socio-political blitzkrieg from a fierce South Memphis spitter, plus the newest sureshot from the Backwoodz Studioz camp. We additionally highlight a few spooked-out releases prime for the Halloween season.
billy woods x Messiah Muzik
Church
“We was raised on paraquat/ Scraped and fought/ By the grace of God, everyone else obtained caught,” repeats billy woods on the hook to the introductory observe of Church, the New York rapper’s full-length collaboration alongside producer Messiah Muzik. The tune’s sentiment acts as an early benchmark for the way in which woods embarks on one thing akin to a private reminisce session over the saturnine soundscapes that anchor the undertaking. On the next observe “Artichoke” woods brings the economical aptitude of a brief story author to his opening flashback: “It’s sure issues you’ll be able to solely be taught from a fist struggle/ I used to make use of a toothbrush to maintain my kicks white/ It mattered that a lot/ In hindsight, looks like another person’s life.” Providing essential assist to woods’ visions, the MC’s Armand Hammer rhyme companion ELUCID graces a few cuts (the serenely glistening “Fuchsia & Inexperienced” and stirring nearer “Magdalene”), whereas AKAI SOLO and singer Fielded be a part of forces on the gothic-tinged “Classical Music.” One other important addition to the 2022 Backwoodz Studioz canon.
clipping.
REMXNG 2.1-2.4
Channeling the Halloween spirit, REMXNG 2.1-2.4 is a gargantuan four-volume remix sequence of Los Angeles rap crew clipping.‘s horrorcore-styled albums There Existed An Addiction To Blood and Visions Of Bodies Being Burned. Mirroring the progressively-minded mentality of group members MC Daveed and producers Invoice Hutson and Jonathan Snipes, the solid of artists tasked with reinterpreting the tracks take a gleefully genre-fluid method: Oil Thief transforms Daveed’s cautionary story of corrupt police on “He Useless” right into a grinding dose of distorted funk; turntablist Baseck sculpts the unique ambient menace of “Run For Your Life” right into a relentless synth assault; and Negativland member Wobbly flips the vampire movie-sampling “Blood Of The Fang” right into a hyperactive glitch-centric exercise. Snagging the experimental crown, Bay Space-based subject recording artist Cheryl E. Leonard‘s reworking of “Half Of Mud” contains ambient sounds sourced from wind rustling by a Norwegian artist residency attic, an improvised flute crafted from kelp, and chatter from a rookery of child northern elephant seals.
Fatboi Sharif x noface
Preaching In Havana
Fatboi Sharif possesses a spectral growl of a voice that gives the look the New Jersey MC is broadcasting from some eerie hinterland that defies earthly time and house. On Preaching In Havana, the impact is much more powerfully enhanced by New York Metropolis producer noface’s daringly pared-back, fuzz-laden manufacturing. “Swallowed my very own tongue/ Abdomen turning intervals/ Feast by myself younger/ Hangman, self-loathing, scroll tomb/ Window cracked, haunted outdated room/ So confused,” confesses Sharif on opener “Static Imaginative and prescient,” rapping over what feels like a blanket of hiss topped by an inverted lo-fi model of the sampled JB’s horn screech that famously speared by Public Enemy’s “Insurgent With out A Pause.” Providing good distinction to Sharif’s intense presence, svelte spot lyrical cameos arrive courtesy of phiik and Lungs, with the previous including on to the mutedly rumbling “5G Celsius Cell Tower” and the latter splattering a burst of rapid-fire syllables over the distorted buzz funk of “John Hinckley.” Neatly drawing to an in depth at simply over 22 heady minutes, Preaching In Havana is a beguiling lesson within the artwork of amplified minimalism.
Haunted Home Social gathering
Monster’s Delight
Launched through the New Orleans-based Strange Daisy label, Haunted House Party‘s Monster’s Delight delivers a sequence of dusty, blunted beats laced with crackly, archived-horror-flick vocal grabs. Ripe for soundtracking a fright night time soirée, the undertaking opens with ominous scene setter “a graveyard smash,” the place foreboding organ strains prowl round lurching drums. Elsewhere on the album, the jazz-flecked “bogie bounce” is carried by cymbals and features a savvy beat change that brings to thoughts the creepy musical environment of upstate New York duo The Doppelgangaz, “witches brew” conjures melancholy menace by a lonesome piano loop, and “samhains” introduces delicate psychedelic components into the spooky combine. For dedicated tape heads, restricted version Halloween-themed cassettes are additionally out there to cop.
Lukah
Raw Extractions
Uncooked Extractions extends Lukah‘s wealthy and prolific latest run of albums. Calling on an internal circle of producers that features Cities Aviv, Deener, and Walz, the South Memphis MC relays a mix of private, musical, and political historical past to a thought-provoking impact. Early on, “Flying Low” sees the MC shifting into metaphysical territory over producer Bohemia Lynch‘s eerily radiant ’80s synths. “I’m the household tree that was destroyed by previous family/ The faux initiative that was compelled to show us irrelevance,” seethes Lukah earlier than continuing to rattle off a barrage of costs at organizations pushing “twisted data” for self-gain and people taking advantage of being a “counterfeit explorer.” Including a way of hip-hop authority to the undertaking, snippets of sampled speeches from revered artists Chuck D, KRS-One, and GZA are dotted between tracks, whereas the late album minimize “I’ll All the time Love Her” provides on to Common‘s basic “I Used To Love H.E.R.” ode to hip-hop in a refreshingly nuanced trend.
Marlowe
Marlowe 3
The third installment in North Carolina MC and producer duo Solemn Brigham and L’Orange‘s Marlowe sequence seamlessly maintains the sterling high quality of their earlier outings. “I can present you when to spin and when to throw down/ Set you in your block and make your companions extra proud/ The place I’m from they cowl me a lot that I drown/ Know you need the spot however don’t no person inform how,” raps Brigham on early minimize “Previous Life,” earlier than sketching out the parameters of his hustling mentality and issuing a warning: “Know some individuals arising however they ain’t residing what they declare.” Throughout the album, L’Orange’s manufacturing fuses bluesy dust-coated loops that exude a lonesome high quality with hefty drum patterns. Including assist to Brigham’s assured phrases on the undertaking, Blu and Joell Ortiz crew as much as bless the horn-powered “Royal,” whereas fellow North Carolina consultant Deniro Farrar delivers a gravel-voiced sermon to a background of low-slung dusky guitar on “Godfist.”
Open Mike Eagle
a tape called component system with the auto reverse
Open Mike Eagle‘s 2020 providing Anime, Trauma and Divorce explored the sentiments of confusion and disorientation that include a relationship breakup, however the Los Angeles-based MC’s 2022 follow-up a tape known as part system with the auto reverse is a hotter nostalgic journey. Taking inspiration from handmade mixtapes Eagle used to make whereas listening to Chicago’s WHPK school radio station within the late-’90s, the album employs archived snippets from these tapes to gel the undertaking collectively. Calling on a manufacturing solid that features Madlib, Child Actor, and Diamond D, Eagle relays tributes to departed hip-hop supervillain MF DOOM (“For DOOM”), revisits the early isolation of the pandemic (“Peak Lockdown Raps”), and weighs up his relocation from Chicago to L.A. (“Crenshaw And Homeland”). Fortifying Eagle’s personal verbals, R.A.P. Ferreira, Nonetheless Rift, and Video Dave assist to brighten the tranquil “Multi Recreation Arcade Cupboard,” whereas billy woods and ELUCID deliver their lyrical gravitas to the angular piano chops of mid-album standout “Burner Account.”
Sleep Sinatra, Ohbliv
Shadow Self
Shadow Self is an album that backs Nebraska wordsmith Sleep Sinatra‘s ruminative verses with a group of dusky, bass-helmed beats offered by Virginia-based producer and Mutant Academy member Ohbliv. “Possess imagery/ My ideology spark the chemistry/ Feeling like I’ve been right here for hundreds of years/ Simply let me know the play and we are able to run it up endlessly,” opens the MC on “Stage Zero,” as a backdrop of rustling acoustic guitar prompts the kind of Hennessy-stained soul looking out that recurs throughout the album. Providing assist to Sinatra’s phrases, Archibald SLIM and Aakeem Eshu cross by the bittersweet soul exercise “Spirit Physique Home Social gathering Cipher,” a granular-voiced Obijuan brings his presence to the nervy and simmering “Vary Day,” and the Bruiser Brigade’s J.U.S. seems on the essential, blues-tinted “Doorways Of Notion.”
Wiki & Subjxct 5
Cold Cuts
Following a few 2021 releases recorded alongside Navy Blue (Half God) and NAH (Telephonebooth), Wiki retains religion with the format of entrusting a single producer to craft a whole album by collaborating with New Jersey beatsmith Subjxct 5 for Chilly Cuts. Partly styled as a tribute to the mixtape period—full with Subjxct 5 hollering energized ad-libs between tracks—the stalwart New York Metropolis MC aptly demonstrates his signature gnarly stream and skill to relay compactly-composed verses that element his wandering thoughts’s ideas. Early on, the undulating six-minute “My Life” hosts the MC going through as much as taunts focusing on “the way in which I look/ My unibrow/ The best way I spit/ The best way I stay/ Calling Wiki Frida,” earlier than defiantly stating: “I’m embracing it.” Mid-project second “The Fonz” furrows additional into autobiographical territory, because the MC evaluations hardscrabble formative days over Subjxct 5’s frost-laden synth chorus. Solidifying artistic connections throughout Wiki’s prolific discography, earlier collaborative spar Navy Blue additionally pops up throughout the album’s dwelling stretch so as to add his sage vocals to the meditative “One Extra Likelihood.”
Zilla Rocca & andrew
Don’t Wait For Me to Leave
The newest assortment of self-styled, number-one-bourbon-general Zilla Rocca‘s South Philadelphia dispatches arrive backed by soul-dripping manufacturing courtesy of andrew. “Signal of maturity/ Rap by no means taught me nothing morally/ It minimize down my crew and charged recording charges/ At the very least I do know I’m good now/ ’09 making an attempt to be Elzhi/ You trapped within the ‘90s, however you’ll be able to’t inform time,” raps Rocca on early observe “Draper Papers,” condensing the MC’s mix of throwback references and wry rap-centric musings over a mix of thudding drums and bittersweet horns. Supporting Rocca’s verses, Curly Castro and Rich Jones visitor on the palpably swaying “Rain Delays,” Teller Bank$ commandeers the curt “Teller’s Lament (Interlude),” and PremRock groups with ALASKA on “No One Cooks On Friday” because the trio of MCs rely life’s humble blessings over a honeyed guitar-infused groove.
