indie hip-hop/NYC rap/cloud rap

Action Bronson turns in a great second (depending on how you’re counting) LP. Excellent production with a variety of styles, but stays cohesive. Hilarious abstract shit talking, gourmet food references, obscure pop culture references, great flows, solid to excellent guest appearances. He sounds like Ghostface, and they’ve got a bit of stylistic similarity beyond just vocal tone, but Bronson’s by no means trying to be a copy. Also, you should check out his web series “Fuck, that’s delicious”, which is pretty entertaining.

RIYL: Action Bronson, Ghostface Killah, cloud rap

FCC clean (edited for radio)

1. bouncy descending piano lines, rolling acoustic drums. false starts, beat and flow fall apart a couple times and come back together, seemingly on purpose. nice casual sounding opener, even though it's well put together. 2:25
2. strutting boom bap drums, rising organ riffs, bouncy sparse piano lines. ad-libs from 4:05
3. laid back. shuffling drums, gauzy keys and jazz guitar plucks. original beat dissipates slowly around 3:00, fades to synthy ambient underwater interlude with chants and birds for last minute, which flows right into the following track. could fade out early, could play to the end, could play with the next track. 4:53
4. synth from prior track gets all woozy, turns into slow yo-yoing bassy melody. add sparse bells, echoed horn stabs, and ample low end. bronson kills it, effortlessly twisting and shifting cadence around the beat, delivering hilarious and bizarre bragadoccio (full of references to gourmet food and old pop culture, but don't worry, not in a classy way). excellent late night indie rap, best thing on here (probably my favorite bronson track besides "brunch"). 4:01
5. bouncy funhouse organ loop, clattery drums with snare fills, breakdowns and occasional background sound effects. battle rap, origin mythology. nice guest verse from mayhem lauren (“i’m new york before it turned into a bike lane”). ridiculous outro ad-libs form big body bes. 2:32
6. interlude, traffic sounds, bronson gets guy on the street he’s run into before to re-tell/sing a story about a woman he used to know (like a low budget delfonic). might be hard to fit into your set, but has a lot of charm. 2:22
7. clattery drums, lots of cymbals, bluesy guitar loop, bronson lamenting a girl who only wants him for his money, some fuzz on the vocals. 4:08
8. rain and traffic sounds. spare bassline, occasional piano and guitar runs, backup vox flit in and out. beat kicks in and it coheres at 1:30 but stays restrained. bouncy halting flow, a bit of reflection (but not really, still talking shit and delivering funny non-sequiturs). 5:59
9. bright bouncy upbeat simple piano loop. bronson warbling the hook. bronson bragging about where he’s at but down over his girl troubles. guest verse from chance, who’s unable to actually wish ill on his ex. obnoxious, kind of cheesy, really fun. 4:43
10. rock guitar loops, steady cymbal heavy drums that occasionally lurch, sampled/chopped hair band singing of the title for the hook. out for blood, talking lots of shit to any rappers who think they can compete. mellow piano solo towards the end. 4:15
11. shuffling drums, squelchy jazzy bass guitar loop, low piano stabs in the background. occasionally gets underwater filtered sound with phone convo laid over, kind of rapping back to it, but not always. abstract spaced out raps, complains that his mind is shot when he loses the beat at the end, funny. 2:31
12. a bit of crowd noise, mellow organs, drumsticks clapping. eventually, some lazy guitar around the midpoint. bronson’s vocals come in way late, stay spare, and are mixed low enough that they’re hard to decipher. last minute or so is crowd chanting and live playing of lead in to the next track... 3:14
13. ...though this track is a studio take, not a live one. lo-fi guitar fuzz guitar loops, sampled strutting drums, buzzy psych organ. beat pares back under filter a couple times. psychedelic stream of consciousness braggadocio and food talk (“ride the harley into the sunset”). 4:45


recommended: 4, 8, 3, 13, 9, any