Rapid Fire Reviews: Hip Hop Outsiders

Hopefully this is the first of a lot more rapid fire reviews in the coming weeks as I've got a lot of catching up to do. First things first. There have been a number of high profile records coming from the experimental and alternative realms of hip hop that I'm putting under the "outsider hip hop" umbrella even though the sounds don't necessarily have a ton of similarity. 

Long Term Effects Of SUFFERING - $uicideboy$

Any $uicideboy$ fan that's ever interacted with me on Twitter can tell you that I have a shaky relationship with Ruby and $crim as of recent. Even though I enjoyed their I Want To Die In New Orleans album since then they've released a Travis Barker collaboration that missed me completely, as well as a mixtape that didn't leave much of an impact. If there is a silver lining to Long Term when viewed from a big picture lens it's that the band clearly put more effort into this release. At the very least this collection of short songs have a recognizable sonic consistency to them and the focus on one verse after another with no hooks starts to feel like a conceptual choice. With grimy instrumentation throughout and very few hooks the duo really have to carry the record with their performances and while it has flashes, they spend a lot of time delivering painfully average southern rap and emo trap. The record also has a really loose concept that dabbles in materialism and the opioid crisis, told almost entirely through samples of infomercials. That is really all I have to say about the record honestly. It's pretty inconsistent and features a number of lyrical moments that I bet the duo wish they had back. While they're energy is occasionally on point and making for infectious highlights they deliver with a wide variety of success and don't really do anything that makes me want to listen to $uicideboy$ over so many of their peers putting out more interesting tracks. 5/10

Only Child - Uncommon Nasa

Like many fans I was introduced to Uncommon Nasa through his feature heavy Written At Night project in 2017. While he has never been one of the most loved or acclaimed voices in the very deep world of abstract hip hop I have kept tabs on him because of how impressive I found his confident delivery and lyrical style. This record features wall to wall production from Messiah Musik and it works perfectly with Nasa's style. The beats are stark, obtuse and absolutely classic and the record is packed full of vocal samples that add attitude and context to some of Nasa's best verses. While the grander impressions of what Nasa is rapping about can often be a bit abstract and difficult to nail down I do think there are a number of incredibly creative and impressive lyrical moments littered throughout the record. Even better than the lyrics is the delivery which is consistently intense and confrontational throughout giving a powerful punch to Nasa's nostalgic reflecting and brutally honest poetry. For a record with no vocal features that features 30+ minutes of Nasa alone aside from the samples, he keeps it really interesting delivering compositionally dynamic tracks and a variety of themes and lyrical approaches making for an all around impressive display that is easy to listen to on the surface and worth diving deep into. While there are some tracks here that don't have quite the same level of intrigue, with the shortest track Discipline standing out as the most obvious example I still liked a lot of what this record has on display. Highlights like U68, Brooklyn Soup and Vincent Crane show off Nasa's versatility as a rapper, talent as a storyteller and knowledge as a musical historian. Only Child is already looking like one of the most underrated albums of the year, delivering hard-hitting abstract hip hop with not much to complain about. 8/10

GUMBO'! - Pink Siifu

Pink Siifu is an extremely prolific rapper who I've been keeping my eyes on for a couple years due to his southern influences and ability to attract other talented voices in rap for collaborations. Gumbo is one of a number of projects Siifu has dropped this year but it seemed like the most significant of his outings given its nearly hour long run time and extensive list of collaborating producers and vocalists. GUMBO is a giant love letter to southern strains of hip hop both new and old that features some sounds and voices of the old school alongside up and coming rappers with a distinct southern trap flair. Given just how many people were involved in the creation of the record it felt pretty obvious that there would be a massive disparity in talent and that mostly comes on the modern trap side of things. While being influenced by Young Thug certainly isn't a bad thing and most modern trap rappers are, a lot of this record takes his discography as a mission statement rather than a launch pad. There are so many rappers I've never heard of doing painfully derivative Thugger impressions over forgettable trap beats on this record, Siifu included. While there are no doubt highlights on the modern side of things. when Siifu throws it back to a more classic southern rap vibe, he really does the sound justice. Particularly on the back half of the record with a few of the posse cuts he is gathering some serious talent together for warm, bouncy songs that could fit in alongside some of the genres forefathers. Despite its variance I liked quite a bit of this record and it introduced me to some talented voices that I'll definitely be looking out for going forward, Siifu included. 7/10