Metal Lungies

Everyone now please turn to the chapter on drum programming.

When they’re not playing with melody, trap rap’s forerunners are chanting over uncomfortably sparse beats.

Johnny Cinco’s latest release opts for minimal 808 thumpers on which he slurs tales from the trap. MoneyMakinNique of Atlanta plays Big Boi to his Andre.

Jeremiah Jae is easily my favorite scion of MF Doom, except for maybe post-Gangrene Alchemist.

A new iteration of GTA V for PS4 and Xbox One means an updated soundtrack with new joints by Flying Lotus featuring DOOM and Freddie Gibbs with Mike Dean. Rockstar Games = rap’s Medicis.

Amid years of fruitless attempts to regain New York hip-hop’s former glory, luddites’ endeavors to reinstate “real” hip-hop, and embarrassing overtures by yesterday’s greats — most recently, the Wu-Tang Clan’s painful and perverse new album — amid all of that, Raekwon alone seems to have noticed that the provenance of every golden hip-hop moment remains pure and unadulterated for the taking. It’s sitting there in bygone record crates.

L.A. by way of Chicago producer Salva went and got all your favorite rappers for his mixtape. Download it at his website and listen to choice cuts featuring Freddie Gibbs, Kurupt, E-40, and Schoolboy Q below.

Future’s post-debut mixtape Monster gives us two (2) certified bangers, depending on your definitions of “certified” and “banger”. We’ll likely have to wait until his next proper album (or DJ Khaled feature) for a pop masterstroke of the order of “Honest,” but he acquits himself nicely on rawer cuts on Monster. A loosie, “Break The Rules,” is great too. Tagless versions exist on the iTunes / Spotify version.

SoundCloud gives us a glowing new jack swing-y flip of Bobby Brown’s “Roni”.

2014’s freshman class: Rae Sremmurd, Bobby Shmurda, OG Maco, and Dej Loaf. “Blood” shows that “Try Me” wasn’t a fluke.