leftfield hip-hop/indie rap

Chicago indie vet Serengeti teams up with LA's Open Mike Eagle for shit talking, stream of consciousness observations, and relayed stories from the residents of the mixed luxury/affordable housing development where they're handymen. You'd have to pay pretty close attention to glean that story (emphasis on the stream of consciousness style). But the rapping's great, and they work over synth and drum machine beats with strong southern influence, still quirky, but heavier and more current than what I've heard Serengeti on before. Both rappers are very much in their element here with all this cynical/funny/observational slice of life stuff.

RIYL: Serengeti, Open Mike Eagle, Busdriver, Del, Heiroglyphics/Souls of Mischief, Native Tongues, Aceyalone, Das Racist

1. (FCC, sort of*) short guitar loop then lurching bass and drums kick in, half mumbled raps. guitar's buzzier on the hook and at a couple other points. sludgy, dark, post-punk textures welded onto 808 and keyboard bass chassis. 2:42
2. slow droney bassline, loping drum machine, waterlogged reverby notes float on top, slow stream of consciousness laying around reflecting lyrics, repeated/traded word-swapped phrases. spacey slow guitar solo in background on outro. 3:03
3. woozy undulating synth tones with sparse distorted low guitar chirps, med/slow tempo deliberate drums (maybe sampled maybe synthed). best vocals on the album, flipping all over the beat, real loopy chorus, phrases repeat but don't, plays w/ words trading between phrases. sorta chill, sorta tweaky. favorite track. 3:46
4. haunted churchy undulating vocal loop, heavy sampled drums, thick foggy synth tones, not quite minimalist, adds up to syrup slow uneasy beat. first couple MCs have intricate staccato flows, serengeti comes in w/ bars that dip in and out of double-time giving unsolicited advice/observations to an unnamed subject, busdriver brings something more elastic and paranoid. 4:20
5. (FCC?**) rich buzzy midrange synth undulation over slow booming kicks and sparse filtered snares. sad/frustrated but hopeful. narration includes people meeting, interpersonal friction, overconsumption of edibles, aggressive reintroductions to the world at large. fuzzy guitar drone over distant soca drums outro***. 3:43
6. back to some darkness, slow loping kicks and claps, slow pulsing slightly bassy melody. delivery starts rapid fire accusatory, gets slower more frustrated, rambling over hook, maybe talking to self. 2:06
7. upbeat, shuffling drum pattern, low bouncing bass, buzzing synths and chopped syllables make melody. emphatic delivery, overdosing on good times. 1:53
8. lo-fi, mid/slow, short, pretty melancholy beat, maybe don't pay attention to the words, real dysfunctional/sad, but no FCCs. 1:34
9. (FCC: fuck, etc) boom bap drums, filter swept guitar loop, shifting cadences range all over. 2:49

recommended: 3, 2, 5, 4

* all instances of "fuck" are edited out, but there were many instances, and it's still pretty clear what was being said, so prob better for safe harbor anyway.
** don't think so but hard to make out buried mumbling at end, and it's not impossible. but after listening a bunch in headphones, i don't think so. does say "ass" a number of times, though, FYI ("pretty-ass pinky").
*** i think the drums in the outro are what determined the rhythm of the synth pulse, which would be a neat idea/trick. and maybe the synth pulse was actually that guitar drone run through a bunch of effects. i don't know, but sounds super-cool, and fun to speculate.