rap/hip-hop

Excellent street rap over bristling experimental beats from all-star producers (DJ Dahi, who produced Kendrick's "Money Trees" among other things; No ID, veteran Chicago producer and mentor to Kanye; and James Blake, who prob needs no intro here). Sort of takes the "success isn't curing the depression" aspect of Kendrick's TPAB and distills it into an EP of well-executed restless self-loathing and probably-unsustainable-but-fun-for-the-moment coping mechanisms. This is a rapper who can complain about a one night stand asking him to crip walk before name-checking James Joyce in the next bar, without sounding the least bit forced.

RIYL: Kendrick Lamar, Schoolboy Q, Freddie Gibbs

FCC clean!

1. brief intro: cassette placed in deck and rewound a bit, then brief morose a cappella take on gospel standard "this little light of mine" is cut short by gunshot (presumably self-inflicted). 0:42
2. punchy jumpy irregular drums and andre 3000 vocal sample, gives way to vince chanting the hook/title. beat gets a more stable footing, minimalist searching synth melody line comes in with nimble verse. then growling bassline and synth streaks as the hook comes back. 2:35
3. crunchy guitar loop intro gives way to spare drums and lo-fi piano loop and thick sub-bass. guitar loop and crunchier drums on the hook. vocals are languid, a bit sad but defiant/resilient, half-sung, occasionally filtered. guitar comes back and does noisy static-y solo under extended take on the hook. song proper ends around 2:50 in brief squall, rest is forlorn a cappella thing that starts as a lost-love song but gets rangier. 4:21
4. hectic/nervous, sparse clickly-clappy drums, minimalist synth shards, like old neptunes producing for clipse. kilo kish comes lends her voice for seductive internal monologue, beat switches up gets dominated by heavier bass tone undulations, vince comes back on original version of the beat, brief breakdown as hotel staff is knocking at the door and girlfriend is taking vince to task for childish behavior, back to vince rationalizing it all and kilo kish providing helpful justifications. song proper ends at 3:20, morose a cappella and occasional screams to close it. 4:18
5. big shuddering slab of a beat. slow-rolling 808 with big kicks, chopped vocal fragments, flow is elastic and confident. drums mostly drop out on the hook and harmonized sung vox come in. gets a bit brighter and fuller in the end, A$AP rocky on the closing bridge chanting "once you get addicted to it". song proper dissolves out at 2:46, a cappella for the rest, less sad in tone even if the lyrics aren't. 3:30
6. intermittent sub-bass tones, hiccuping hand drum and cymbal crash loops, pulsing mid-range synth tones in background, insistent vocal fragments. more of the elastic confident flow on the verses, vince does the half-sung slightly filtered hook. 2:50
7. clicky thumpy drum machine, sinister synth pulses, spare chiptune beeps. halting verses and flowing hook, beat starts to fill out more around the midpoint, squiggles at first, then synth harpsichord pulses and rising translucent tones, abrupt end at 2:40, 30 sec of silence, brief storm cloud outro. 2:40 for the song proper, 3:31 for the whole thing

recommended: 4, 2, 5, 3, 7, 6 (all are excellent)