Week #46 ('20) Singles
Welcome to my Singles post, where I go over all of the loose songs released over the past week so. These are songs that are not currently attached to projects, and may either be promotional singles for an upcoming project or songs dropped at the random whim of the artist. I’ll show you the single, where to find it out in the wild, and a little blurb about it for my thoughts/further context. Click here to see previous Singles posts.
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Your Old Droog (Feat. Mach-Hommy, El-P, Tha God Fahim, & Black Thought) – Pravda
Wow. I’m honestly speechless. Absolutely perfect track. Every single person kills their verse. EL-P AND BLACK THOUGHT? I shouldn’t have to say a single thing here: listen to this motherfucking track and get ready for Droog’s new LP DumpYOD, which is hopefully coming out on December 4th…. how does this man keep getting better?
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RJ Payne (Feat. Sunnie Blac & Snyp Life) – Beautiful Murder
Anyone who follows Payne knows that a lot of his best material comes from the loose singles he drops on occasion. There is a competitive energy in these songs (because damn-near all of them have guests delivering at the best of their ability) between RJ and his guests, and that drive to outdo one another leads to some of the best hardcore hip-hop you can find. Sunnie Blac (by way of RJ’s own Educated Ignorance Music Group affiliation) KILLS this motherfucker with his shouted flow. Snyp Life (by way of Yonkers’ own D-Block) is much more laid back but has an unbreakable smooth-killer energy. But RJ Payne follows up at the end of the track, demonstrating his monstrous lyrical skills yet again. Huge verses, no hook, excellently hard funk/blaxploitation beat; this would be the clear winner this week had Droog not dropped his bomb.
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DJ Scheme (Feat. Cordae, Ski Mask the Slump God, & Take a Daytrip) – Soda
A bouncy and fun trap beat from the Take a Daytrip/Scheme team; kind of sounds like a Tay Keith beat with the prominent piano loop, but trading the super bass slaps for a more minimal and airy instrumental. The real treat comes with the performances from the emcees here: I like Cordae, but I can’t say I’ve ever vibed with him as much as I do with this track. Whenever he’s trying to be lyrical miracle I tend to tune out, but whenever he chills out a little and has fun like he does on this track, he makes a much bigger impact on me. He comes with humor, fast flows, great breath control and wordplay; he really kind of runs the track. Ski Mask has a great verse in the center part of the track, and it’s about what you would expect from rap’s resident weirdo. A great single, one that I hope Scheme can follow up with some more fire on a project soon.
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Loyle Carner – Yesterday
I’ve only heard Loyle one time before this single, a track on DJ Shadow’s latest release, so this collaboration with the beat-master Madlib is a bit of a surprise to me. Maybe they have more of a history that I don’t know about, but the chemistry is definitely here in any case. There are a lot of different elements that send home the impact of the song: the lyrics really dig into the different parts of Loyle’s life from his youngest days to his status in the game today, and Madlib’s production is a perfectly nostalgic and warm backing soundtrack. The third thing that I’m going to need y’all to check out is the music video, which shows these different phases of his life starting from his father on up to Loyle becoming a father himself. MadLoyle is a name being thrown around right now, and while it’s not the album I was expecting, I will never say no to another Beat Konducta tape.
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KXNG Crooked – WHO AM I (FREESTYLE)
The sure-fire way to know if a beat is a classic is to have multiple people jumping on it. JR Swiftz utilized the sample first, a dark and rumbling off-kilter piano hellscape, for Westside Gunn’s Lil Cease, a classic off of the strength of the instrumental alone. Then we got RJ Payne’s Fuck Ya Life (where Toast 187 seems to have flipped the same sample with similar results), on which Payne, Gorilla Nems, and Swave Sevah completely demolish the beat with killer wordplay and hard-as-nails deliveries. That leads us to this Freestyle from Crook here, taking that same beat and acting his violent magic over it in a way that really only he can. It’s just a one off verse (that I’ve been thinking about lacing into the original Gunn track), but it’s only a minute long in the first place, perfect for a little infusion of lyrics in your life. Just go listen to the savagery.
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Russ & Ab-Soul – Who Wants What
So Russ has a new EP coming out here in the near future, and if you haven’t seen the tracklist for this thing you’ll probably be shocked. KXNG Crooked? Busta Rhymes? Black Thought and Benny the Butcher on the same track? I can only assume that if these emcees fuck with Russ, then we should all be giving this EP a listen whenever it drops based solely off of the strength of the cosign. So this track here has another one of the features, Ab-Soul, a person who I have been FEINDING to hear for years now, and if it took Russ to get a verse out of the man then so be it. It’s every bit as good as I wanted it to be, but it’s not the landslide victory for Soulo that I thought it would be… because Russ actually holds his own on this bitch. His wordplay is thoughtful, his flow is steady and rolling, and his voice never gets annoying. AND, he produced the beat himself. So yeah… keep an eye out for the Chomp EP, I have a good feeling about it.
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Run the Jewels – No Save Point
Will Cyberpunk 2077 come out on the like 5th release date it’s had so far? Signs are pointing to most likely, and we’re officially gearing up into the ‘Punk season with this new game-associated single from the Jewel Runners themselves El and Mike. I obviously haven’t played the game yet, so I’m not sure about how true to the game’s themes the two stick lyrically, but I’ve got to say, at the very least, Killer Mike seems like he did his homework: dystopian cityscapes, tall skyscrapers of the future, corporations owning everything about you, selling organs, cybernetic arms, Keanu Reeves… it sounds like he’s played the game and I’m very jealous. The beat is what you would expect from Run the Jewels, very digital and scuzzy sounding, perfect late-night riding music for 50 years from now. I’m not gonna say get excited for this game even more because I’m tired of being disappointed… but yeah get excited fuck that shit.
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Lil Nas X – Holiday
Lil Nas is back (for the holidays) with his first track in a very long time. I assume he’s just been coasting on Old Town Road money for a year now (shit he probably never has to work a day I his life again), so it’s nice to see that he’s coming back to some music making despite the gap. I don’t think this song is meant to be his “big return” (or at least that’s what I’m hearing around the internet), but for his first in a while it scratches that itch. He’s always been more of a vocalist, so the singing is front and center on this track; it’s not the best voice, but the autotune makes smooth and soothing without any blemishes. It’s a very clean sound, and paired with the minimal Tay Keith trap beat there really isn’t anything “wrong” with the track. Very easy to listen to, catchy hook, some funny bars; pop-rap at it’s best.
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Rico Nasty – OHFR?
So Rico has an album dropping at the beginning of next month, Nightmare Vacation, and if I’m being honest with y’all it wasn’t really on my radar. I listened to her last single with Gucci and Toliver and thought it was good, but I needed to see how the rest of the album stacked up before I made up my mind. But this next single she has here is so much more my speed than anything I’ve heard from her before. Often Rico’s voice and delivery is… grating? To my ears, but I think she dials it down (it’s still fucking crazy but not like borderline screaming territory) enough to keep my attention, make a splash, and have that punkish energy without turning me off. I hope her album is more like this, a more reserved but still disrespectful punk-hop.
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Higher Brothers – Empire
It’s been a minute since I’ve covered the Higher Brothers here on Tha Soup Dude’s Kitchen, it seems like these guys haven’t dropped anything in a minute. I spoke high-praises of their previous album from last year, Five Stars, a great mix of the Chinese language and traditional pop-trap bangers, and this newest singles is pretty much an extension of that energy, but the flows and technical skills seem to have been elevated. Let’s be clear: I have no idea what these four dudes are saying. There is an occasional English word in there to stand on, but it’s not like a German rapper for me where I can kind of get the gist of what they’re saying whenever I really pay attention. This is gibberish to mine and many of your ears… buuuuut, the aggression and the energy they push out on the microphone still makes this hype to listen to, the four are different enough stylistically to pick them apart, and the beats are just too crazy. Give this a shot if you’ve never listened to people rap in Chinese before; you won’t regret it.
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The Plug (Feat. Lil Pump & Aitch) – Goyard Batman
Alright so Lil Pump (aka Little Pimp) is basically cancelled right? Dude stood like a clown in front of Donald Trump and has forever sullied his good name (there are some of you out there that would say his music sullied his good name and to you I say “D Rose and Gucci Gang are lit”). Listen to this track for Aitch then, but just know that the two of them on this track is a combination that I never would have thought to have come about, and I’m pleasantly surprised. Pump tries a little harder to keep up, but leans on that humor more than usual. Aitch kills this shit; I’m loving how nimbly he weaves in and out of the beat, and his accent is always a treat to hear. Stereotypical dumb trap with some charisma and a solid beat.
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Russ – Congrats Freestyle
Russ places twice this week with the lead single from his upcoming EP (found above) and this little loose track that is much more complete and fire that it’s “freestyle” title implies. Who Wants What and this track show off the true lyrical skill that Russ has inside him, taking away all of that singing/pop shit that he normally does and giving us straight bars, impressive ones for someone who I have never known to be a lyrical emcee. There is a big J. Cole energy to his delivery, giving everything into his raps and truly feeling like the shit he’s saying is some enlightened shit (which, for the most part, it sort of is). His voice is smooth and nice to listen to, very conversational and unintrusive, but you feel like you want to listen to more, like a bard or some shit. I dunno, maybe I’m tripping and the hatewagon is right bit I’m fucking with this, and I think people out there that fuck with lyrics will fuck with this too.
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French Montana (Feat. Benny the Butcher) – Wave Blues
I don’t know what this melodramatic Bob-Dylan-type-shit the hook is on this song, but it really makes it something a lot more special than I was expecting. French is the way he is, there is no need to go over this yet again, but that hook is probably one of the most pleasing things he’s ever put on a chorus before. It’s slightly out of place, but the singing is perfect to my ears, while the acoustic guitar is expertly placed. Benny the Butcher on the second verse brings it on home for me as one of French Montana’s best tracks in my opinion. Check this shit out, and look out for the new French Montana LP coming soon I’m sure.
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billie eilish – Therefore I Am
Not nearly as dark as some of her earlier (and my favorite material) from billie, but it still has that slight edge to it that keeps me intrigued. There is a distinct funk to this track, mostly brough about by the hard bassline that run throughout the hook, and billie sticks to the beat like glue. I also like how vocally billie will do these intro and outro bars in her normal speaking voice, leaving me wanting more content that isn’t in this whisper/breathless delivery she normally does. I still love the track, endlessly catchy and something that I can throw on and vibe out to whenever. But don’t expect that when we all fall asleep where do we go madness on here.
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Sheff G – Lights On
For what is basically amounting to a throwaway track here I’m fucking with this melody hardcore. It’s really the only thing the track has going for it, because it’s rather short and the lyrics sort of cycle through the same Drill-isms, but I’ll be damned if that melody isn’t hot. Listen to this shit if you want something easy and fire to listen to.
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