The future of the underground
Listening to slayr (and Nettspend).
Every week, GOOD STUFF blesses you with one new album, five new songs, and a throwback track you need to hear.
Listen to the official GOOD STUFF playlist on Apple Music, Spotifyand Audiomack.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
slayr — Half Blood (BloodLuxe)
The underground is at a crossroads.
Like “indie,” “alternative,” and “pop” before it, “underground” has become a muddied term. Is it underground because it isn’t mainstream, or because it adheres to the aesthetics of the scene, which right now has coalesced around hyper-distorted rage rap led by a big three of Nettspend, OsamaSon, and Che?
What pushes someone across the line from underground to mainstream? A Don Toliver collab? Refusing to clone Whole Lotta Red? And what happens when someone pushes the boundaries of that sound?
slayr released Half Blood last November to little fanfare. When I covered “Set in Stone” in October, I was surprised at the low view count. He already sounded undeniable. It took basically two months for that to change, as he was quickly anointed the next big thing in the underground. His project was taken down, then re-uploaded with tracks missing due to sample clearance issues. As is custom these days, slayr told fans not to worry. A deluxe was on the way.
I’ll admit listened to Half Blood more than any other album this year. It hits the pleasure centers in my brain like sugar to lab rats. It turns down the distortion of rage rap, and opens the aperture to pop-ready melodies and candy-coated brightness. It mixes in loading-screen EDM, dubstep and rock-rap guitars that would normally make me puke, but it works. It’s a testament to slayr’s melodic sensibilities and bag of flows, and the production that that makes all these elements seem like cheap thrills and grand proclamations, emo and celebratory all at once. One second, slayr is singing about being too shy to send that text over, the next is the most enveloping stab of celestial synths you’ve heard. The next track, his biggest hit, is about a girl he calls Sloppy Joe. Subtlety doesn’t exist here. Even when things move into mosh pit territory, slayr sets himself apart from his peers with adept double time flows à la Eternal Atake. Lil Uzi is a good comp here, along with Juice WRLD—two artists who fit neatly within the aesthetics of their era but sounded fully formed enough to cross over.
Last week, slayr dropped BloodLuxe, which adds another album’s worth of songs to Half Blood with no drop in quality. It’s fitting that project would drop the same day as Nettspend’s early life crisis. As one underground king becomes a mainstream star, a new entrant stakes his claim in the youth zeitgeist. And as ELC perhaps puts a bow on an era of more distortion at all costs, BloodLuxe offers a glimpse of a more melodic future.
No one knows what underground means anymore, but I know what it sounds like next.
5 NEW SONGS YOU NEED RIGHT NOW
MIKE, Earl Sweatshirt & SURF GANG — “Minty // Earth”
I love the concept of a joint double LP where each artist gets their own album with a shared production team and art direction.
vax — “buddy buddy”
Another rapper making melodic rage is vax a 16-year-old from South Florida whose recent standouts “buddy buddy” and “Bobby Shmurda” have production from slayr’s close collaborator waera. If that’s not enough to sell you he also rapped over a flip of Kesha’s “TiK ToK.”
bassvictim — “Sometimes I believe in God (Sometimes I believe in Me)”
I missed bassvictim’s Bowery Ballroom shows last week, but at least they surprise-dropped a new album. Danny Cole’s play-by-play for Welcome breaks down the impulsive nature of that decision. ? mostly trades their sleazy dubstep for ballads and dirges. Fascinating as always, though the standout is still the most party-ready song.
ffawty, 1900Rugrat & BalloutDaDon — “Take It Off”
Sampling the Smashing Pumpkins’ “1979” is either genius or a crime against humanity. Probably both.
2D0GS — “UP”
ALL THE D0GS ARE BARKING.
THROWBACK TRACK
More great lore: When Prince was trying to get out of his Warner Bros. contract, he gave them an album of “old music” (that were recorded in recent sessions) named Come. When they asked for a hit, he reworked and added the 11-minute title track. It takes a lot to be the most shocking Prince song, but “Come” (not to be confused with “Cream”) is up there. It’s also such a seductive groove that somehow 11 minutes isn’t enough. Naturally, It would be his last WB album under his name before becoming the Artist Formerly Known as...
Goodbye:
