Now this is an album! 25 unique tracks that blend lofi hip-hop with jazz and soul and rap. Pink Siifu did his thing here. While the Birmingham, Alabama artist has a LOT more music available, this is a fine introductory project, one that will have me browsing the remainder of his portfolio. But not until I’ve properly digested this dense, 60 minutes beaut. Shout-out GRiMM Doza, liv.e, Budgie, Pyramid Vritra. Shout-out this album. Damn.
–Ben Niespodziany
Twitter: @neonpajamas
This release takes flight as soon as the beat drops on Occasional Smoker (produced by Forest Slikk) as the artist, Yung Warden Buffett applies his raspy, uptempo delivery to its opening line: (When I grow up one day gonna be a nasty fuck like Lester Green). A perfect salute to Lester aka Beetlejuice (Beet for short) who is seen on the cover and in the title, of the KING BEET ep.
Each track contains a Beetle bite as a matter of fact. In the hook on Ignoramus (produced by White Whoadie) Warden sings (‘Your situation is uglier than Beetlejuice dome’) harsh, but a whole bop nevertheless. THATS CREEP throws down a nice and nasty lurker of a production for Fuck Off With That Camera that Y.W.B attacks off top with another great opening line “Go ahead and bang my line I’ll tell you bitch I’M OUT ON BUSINESS.” The end joint, Suction featuring Lil Baby Goat (produced by DIRT MAN) is a trap beat backed, ego flashing offering that ends with guess what? A Beet soundbite. It’s a complete lace up.
The Salt Lake City resident, a member of Schemaposse, when the JGRXXN lead power crew was alive and kicking, is clearly still putting in work. Yung Warden Buffett being just one of many artistic pseudonyms (Tanqueray Romano, Lil Black Lung, Father Creak) where he explores his often dark psyche realms. And with a distinct voice that sounds like himself but also like, Mystikal and Lil Wyte were personas of a man who trades one liner jabs with himself in the world’s first M.P.D buddy (not buddy cop, no no no) film… Hold up, don’t steal the screenplay idea that I just made right now. Writing this review for Candy Drips blog is as binding as a copyright. Just kidding. Or am I? In summary, check out KING BEET by Young Warden Buffett. It’s cohesive for an EP. The tracks are short but succinct.
*Sidenote: The Schema might have dissolved but some of my favorite examples of contemporary chopping (double time rhyming) were done by Warden and another posse member, Kold Blooded. I have a short list of others but lets spare that for another time.
CORRUPT FROM THE GET GO by MC HOLOCAUST
The Birmingham, Alabama based MC Holocaust, one of the co-creators of Doomshop Records isn’t concerned with the hype, he makes no attempt to work with artists who have a buzz or change his sound to a popular or commercially digestible one. It’s dialed in and zoned out, ominous funk, and Candy Drips is fortunate to get an exclusive premiere of his latest, Corrupt From The Get Go.
A sound directly influenced by the evil sample drenched, 808 patterns and choice of circumstance lo-fi vocals of mid to late 90s Memphis rap that spawned the obscure subgenre Devil Shyt. Although Memphis artists coined the term first, Devil Shyt is now a community with artists from all over the globe, creating dark atmospheric street based horror stories in rap form. Now throw in Houston’s dark offerings (the Geto Boys obviously, Ganksta N.I.P, Point Blank etc), the sinister side of the West Coast scene (Brother Lynch Hung, X Raided, even Spice 1 although he never gets the props he deserves) and some will also say, early Spaceghostpurpp with his Phonk creations. No-one has a better grip on this murky melange than DOOMSHOP does right now. Holocausts’ tape is like a South Park Coalition release with most of its production handled by in house artists covering all these sonic elements and more.
The amount of timeless samples embedded on this tape are drowned out by unrecognizable rarities, a signature Shop move, in a successful strategy to distance themselves from the pack.
For instance, the intro track, Nobody Likes U Holocaust (produced by KevinTheCreep), contains a perfect Adina Howard sample. Seconds into the tape and I’m already blown away by its usage. Next, Hate You More Than Myself begins with an uncomfortable Requiem For A Dream scene soundbite while Gangsta Walk Adolf contains Scarface and Bushwick Bill snippets, a salute to that aforementioned Houston influence and a heavy bass that sounds very similar to the one used on the Keith Murray track Dip Dip Di but slowed down, a la DJ Screw. Besides the intro it’s all paired with Holocausts laid back devious flow.
The title track continues the audio mayhem and Mothafuckas Don’t Exist (a crazy, rattling beat produced by Bonkura) contains my favorite lyrical quote (the devil, heavy metal, very skilled with a shovel / disrespectful, next level, fuck life, I ain’t special) while Gotta Plan 2 is pure on a mission mentality that has been missing in rap for years. On A Rampage Ghetto Blaster (produced by Jak3) starts like a UK bassline track before quickly spinning off into an advanced get buck state and Undaground Enemy (AKOZA edit) where ‘Caust states (OGs I sample really fuckin with me / Ima real MC / undaground enemy) maintains the momentum.
Here the tape transitions to smoother selections, like the barrel has gotten too hot and it needs a cool down. Feeble Hearted (prod. by Jake3 and KevinTheCreep) is a lil ranfla roller while Execute Me, Gospel (produced by DJ Sacred) and Another Friday Night (produced by Tyris White) featuring Slim Guerilla also both seal in the funky flavor with soulful source material.
I excitedly compare this movement to B movie culture, for decades remaining far outside the big industry rap and Hollywood radars. Often low budget, shocking, exhilarating and well, usually problematic. And with a name like MC Holocaust, it’s not a reach. Every time I see his name I think of the 1975 film The Black Gestapo. It makes normal people uncomfortable but for those who seek out the nasties, it fits like a murder glove.
-CECIL BLAM DEMENTED
Twitter: @BLAMLORD
The Walking Miscarriage by Jak Tripper/Jakprogresso
The rap community is bombarded by its most recent fads like replicant trap beats and copycat catchphrases but deep down in its core there remains a solid resistance to the bogus consumer hive mind. A veneration for crate digging and complex rhyme schemes.
Jak Tripper aka Jak Progresso is of the latter and his self born Blak Church movement in Putnam County, NY is where he has whipped up product over the last 5 years. The Walking Miscarriage is the latest in a history of audio violence.
From the opening sample on Glum Tree (“Open the gate and let Ja(c)k into the kitchen”) it is clear that came to cook and with bars like (I’m malnourished with flies on my rib cage like third world / I once cut my arm so bad the E.R. intern nurse earled) it’s going to be served up still bleeding, chef’s choice. Cannibal savory wordplay swirling around in a murky stew of self produced, sample saturated, phencyclidine dunked beats. The second track, Parke-Davis is like a paean to (the pharmaceutical company that invented PCP) this angel dusted, demonic celebration of depraved natures.
Red City Knights opens with a Vincent Price soundbite, a dreamy beat and a verse from Lodeck. Monks hit profundo basso notes under Self Indulged where Jak offers a different street perspective (I glorify drugs, and glamorize the cult, they trappin over streets / I trip out in traps and just rap over beats). Psychonaut is a relentless barrage of.. bar rage, so much that he just goes until he quits. On Wallpaper Paste Jak spits: (I’m stoned as a witch trial / from the corner with a lemonade stand in Harlem selling piss vials) and Joel’s Tennis Shoes is book-ended by audio from a docu on serial killer Joel David Rifkin and a William S. Burroughs quip. It’s like an odyssey through lyrical dominance, addiction and dissociation.
One of the many monstrosities from within the Church that Jak built. And if he grabs your ear go and check out his previous releases on Bandcamp. I thoroughly enjoyed every track on this. It would be lazy to categorize his work as horrorcore when it clearly doesn’t abide by those boundaries. You might have seen him with his partner in rhyme, The Buttress and if you aren’t familiar with his work on the battle rap circuits, peep his lyrical homicides on Ibattle, We Go Hard TV, RBE and URLTV.
Next up from him is DARK ENERGY JUDO.
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