The Sun Goes Up And Comes Down

H31R “Rotation”

The vast majority of rap qualifies as “electronic music” these days, so when I say H31R’s second album HeadSpace is a hybrid electronic/rap record I mean it in the sense that JWords’ production aesthetic is very Warp Records. Or Big Dada, which is the actual label releasing this music. “Rotation” is one of the more disorienting and clattering tracks on the record but it’s smoothed out somewhat by the presence of Maassai, who raps in a precise yet conversational cadence similar to that of Noname. She seems very calm at the center of this, but also very intense, so maybe it’s more “calm like a bomb,” as Zack de la Rocha would say.

Buy it from Bandcamp.

Westside Gunn featuring DJ Drama “Suicide in Selfridges”

DJ Drama opens this song describing with two pithy lines that are better than anything I could come up – “this that Purple Tape mixed with codeine vibes, imagine “Murder Was the Case” in the Slum Village.” Yeah, pretty much! The Purple Tape of it all is what pulled me in, as Conductor Williams’ production evokes the particular abrasive minimalism and drunken rhythmic quality of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx. This feels like a loving tribute to Wu-Tang to me, right on down to Westside Gunn emulating Ghostface’s tone and cadence, but not quite to the egregious extreme of Action Bronson.

Buy it from Bandcamp.