Best New Tracks - Pitchfork |  |
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Posted: 19 Aug 2013 11:10 AM PDT
For a while, it seemed like Rocky was the only A$AP Mob member with star potential, but in recent months, A$AP Ferg has proven himself worthy as well. Like Rocky has done all along, Ferg is taking cues from prime-era Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, as the new single "Hood Pope" finds the Harlem native vocalizing in a melancholy singsong cadence with an easy swing to it a la "Tha Crossroads". Like a darker strain of trap as reimagined by Ryan Hemsworth, it's all aerial glints floating around slowly ticking hi-hats and colossal kick-drums. Those therapeutic sounds allow Ferg to express post-fame paranoia: "And I carry the heat/ And I sleep with the chrome/ 'Cause I'm in some beef/ And they want my dome."
A$AP Ferg: "Hood Pope" on SoundCloud. [from Trap Lord; out 08/20/13 via Polo Grounds/RCA/A$AP Worldwide]  |
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Posted: 18 Aug 2013 10:00 PM PDT
Chicago producer DJ Rashad's music taps into two increasingly familiar narratives: One about the relationship between techno and trap characterized by artists like TNGHT, and another about the lingering relevance of 1990s drum n bass, a style that shaped frantic percussion tracks into music that sounded uniform and continuous. Built around samples of Tupac Shakur's dialogue from the 1992 drama Juice, Rashad's latest single-- included on last month's I Don't Give a Fuck EP and his forthcoming Hyperdub album Double Cup (out October 22)-- juxtaposes a slurried, dialtone-like melody and spray of hi-hats with a sour, eerie atmosphere.
Like Shakur's delivery, Rashad's music appears both cool and yet capable of real violence, a kind of smoldering potential energy more threatening than earlier Rashad tracks like "Can't Hold Me Back". The key element is the bass, which hits so hard and so often that it becomes almost drone-like, a fat serpent slithering underneath.  |
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