Hus Kingpin & SmooVth - The Connect Tape [2019]

Tha Connection, a duo made up of Hus Kingpin and SmooVth, have been representing Hempstead for over a decade now; before even Roc Marciano was beginning his legendary 2010’s run. Long Island hasn’t historically been a hotbed for popping emcees, but nowadays with anyone with a computer being able to link up and create scenes in almost any town, cities across the America, especially in New York, are able to get in on the action. The most defining characteristics of the Hempstead scene, which is essentially led by Hus and Roc, are lowkey, whispery, and loose deliveries, subject matters that a grounded in older work like blaxploitation films and the life of a pimp (or just generally sexualized work), and a production style that gravitates towards the weirder side of the underground, with bizarrely obscure and soulful samples being twisted into unique sounds. While The Connect Tape (the tenth project from Tha Connection) isn’t quite the cementing of a clear “top of the pile” in Hempstead, it demonstrates Hus Kingpin and SmooVth as crucial figures in the city that prides itself on taking traditional boom-bap elements and running them through sewer.

It took me a minute to come around on Hus’ style, but eventually his unique production choices won me over. This is his LP from earlier this year, Slime Wave

Hus and SmooVth work well together because they serve as a complement to each other’s styles. While they’re both imbued with a swagger that seems rooted in old school pimps like Petty Tony, SmooVth is the one that takes the confidence to a higher, more poetic place. His flow is slower paced, his rhyme schemes thought out and paid great attention to, and his lyrics can range from laying his gangsta down to reflecting on the deep relationship and love he has for his daughter. His voice is a steady monotone, comparable to someone like Quelle Chris, but it contains enough weight in it to not sound boring. Hus Kingpin, on the other hand, is a very different, but still entirely confident, emcee. Most of the time he sounds like he’s freestyling in the booth, with the fast changes in pace and rhyme scheme indicating a quick witted free-associative style. He has no qualms in delving into explicit violent or sexual topics (like on the track BDSM Night), which I can see being a bit *too much* for some people, but for me, especially coming off of his previous solo album Slime Wave, I’ve grown accustomed to his uncouth lyrics. But the thing that is the most different from SmooVth is Hus’ delivery on the mic, which is high-pitched, nasally, and gutter as fuck with a slight rasp. His voice is very similar Roc Marciano’s, although I’m not entirely sure if that’s influence showing or just result of being from Hempstead. Hus and SmooVth together isn’t really so much a display of their chemistry as much as it is differing, but still complementary, styles that never leaves you bored or tired of a certain delivery. The back and forth between them keeps things engaging, and the guests that they enlist bring an even wider variety of sounds. However, while I like the tracks Caterpillars, BDSM Night, and Way Up, I would have preferred that both artists had written verses for these tracks, because I feel like the solo tracks on here dilute the potency of their combination.

The features on this thing are solid, with a nice spread of obscure artists riding that grimy underbelly of the underground mixed with the rising stars of said underground. Big Twins is a gutter juggernaut for the ages, who despite coming with literally the same flow and delivery on every feature he’s done, still doesn’t fail in getting me hype with his absolutely filthy voice. Twins is joined by Eto on Allustrious, who continues his climb to major recognition by dropping a fantastic verse with an amazing flow; this guy really hasn’t stopped all year, and I think going into 2020 Eto has the chance to become one of the underground’s biggest faces. Speaking of the biggest faces, The Connect Tape has two of the biggest: Rome Streetz and Mach-Hommy, on Hustlers Anonymous and Caterpillars respectively. Rome has one of my favorite intro bars on the project with a nimble and wordy flow, and proceeds to kill it with a rhyme scheme that annihilates this slower tempo boom-bap beat; the dude is seriously channeling some Nas or Kool G Rap vibes here, with the amount of words that rhyme being off the fucking charts. The Dumpmeister fits in well to the low-fi marching tune on Caterpillars, and his aggressive and unrelenting bars hitting like a burst-fire rifle. I’m noticing on features he’s more concerned with writing technically impressive bars rather than deep statements on anything; not at all saying the dude phoned it in here, but just saying he’s saving his most enlightened material for himself, understandably. JuneLyfe, on the last track, is probably the strangest feature with his modulated and scary voice; it reminds me of like… Jigsaw or something in the way it doesn’t’ quite sound real. I’m not sure if I like it to be honest, but it for sure fits into the cloud-roaming digital nightmare of the track. Von Poe VII is an artist I’m glad that The Connect Tape has introduced me to, because his appearance here is nasty to say the least. Poe is a spit-flinging and slurred emcee that puts emphasis on every bar he lays down, and the conviction in his lyrics comes across strong; the dramatic Blooming is made so much better with Von Poe’s presence.

SmooVth (left) and Hus Kingpin (right) are surprisingly young, with SmooVth conveying this deep wisdom and Hus’s heart being so old school you would think they’d been in the game for decades

The production across this thing is a mixture of traditional boom-bap sensibilities, silky smooth beats, and a large number of these digital synthy hellscapes. A firm ground is set in the past with tracks like The Legends and Caterpillars, with the formers hard pianos and punchy drums evoking groups like Mobb Deep, while the latter is a romp through this live drum performance and looped strings. Caterpillars in particular is one of my favorites, sounding like a stripped back Alchemist beat (it may even be the same sample Alan used on his track Flight Confirmation). Wilson Fisk Meets Manny Merengues with its comic book references is like a slightly more icy and ethereal Czarface track, complete with the rolling drums and zany vocal clips and cartoon samples. Blooming raises the stakes with this grand operatic vocal sample, backed with faint strings and submerged drums; it’s still boom-bap, but performed in slow motion for dramatic effect. The vocal samples continues on Way Up, which is smoother, more soulful, largely drumless and meditative track, with that chop sample digging deep with that falsetto (big ups to producer Hobgoblin for this track and Wilson Fisk Meets Manny Merengues, two of my favorite beats on The Connect Tape). The opener, Out of Bounds, is a heavenly oboe sample accented by these crisp guitar notes; having no drums makes this song one of the smoothest in the tracklisting. Hustlers Anonymous is a lighthearted boom-bap beat, but it never gets too rough as it’s a spacious instrumental, with sparse and lowfi key notes creating this feeling of soaring through the stars. That extraterrestrial energy is what fuels a good portion of this album, with unsettling synths and drones being the bread and butter of SmooVth and Hus Kingpin’s steez. The second track, Marathon, lays the vibe on thick, with these heavy and drawn synth drones mixed with 80’s distorted keyboard hits; SmooVth said “this shit sounds like a horror movie” and he ain’t wrong. Medusa brings it down even lower, sounding like a digital sewer of rickety drones, with this odd snare tempo giving the track an unsettling atmosphere. BDSM Night is more low-fi with crinkly, crunchy technological sounds all passed through this vinyl warmth that is particularly haunting. Finally, Allustrious is this nice blend of the boom-bap and digital sides of the record, with the rolling drums giving way to blissful, video-game sounding keyboard flourishes; shit sounds right out of Sonic or Tron or some shit

The Connect Tape is a solid entry in Hempstead history, and an appropriate continuation of the deep partnership that Hus Kingpin and SmooVth have built over the years. It’s an odd record for sure, with the instrumental choices made here being cold and digital amongst various boom-bap influence, but the mixture of the beats and the unusual emcee pairing makes this a record that you don’t want to miss. I hope the two continue on the wave of features and projects they seem to be surfing on into 2020, and that they never quit putting Hempstead and Long Island as a whole on the map for all to see.

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