It looks as if the complete SoundCloud underground rap scene is constructed on reference for the time being, however there’s a wonderful line between being unbearably spinoff and wielding distinctive influences for contemporary outcomes. The previous: 9 Vicious stretching his voice and letting out pterodactyl ad-libs the very same approach Barter-era Younger Thug would. The latter: Feng detailing his Instagram Reel subject journeys over beats that filter M.I.A.’s kala by means of plugg-indebted strategies. Sayso Says, the debut album from 18-year-old Atlanta rapper Che, positioned him comfortably within the latter class, synthesizing rough-around-the-edges punch-in rap with Crystal Castles-esque witch home revivalism. Even when his try wasn’t flawless, the audacity to rap over these beats was sufficient to ascertain his inventive imaginative and prescient; if his Alice Glass ribcage tattoo wasn’t convincing sufficient, the glitchy, arpeggiated synth leads and sidechained four-on-the-floor patterns would do the trick.
On his second album, REST IN BASS, Che largely abandons that sound, as an alternative creating one thing just like the platonic splendid of a rage rap file. He pushes his vocal performances to the intense, usually concurrently greater in pitch, louder in quantity, and extra vicious in supply, like he’s channeling 10 Entire Lotta Purples’ price of Playboi Cartis inside his chest. When proto-hyperpop parts seem, they’re distorted and clipping above every little thing else, much like the mixes on Ken Carson’s A Nice Chaos. REST IN BASS is defiantly overstuffed, crushing acquainted rage concepts collectively with out stalling in a single place too lengthy. It seems like browsing static-possessed tv channels.
You’ll be able to hear Che’s love of dance music all through. Take “Hood Well-known,” the place he alters strains barely like a home producer sneaking in sudden deviations: “I really feel it in my chest/I’m the very best” turns into “It’s in my flesh and blood/I’m the very best,” with the “I’m the very best” being copied and pasted. When he lands on the identical beat with similar inflection, he sounds simply as machine as human. He makes use of an identical strategy on “Die Younger,” shuffling between 4 completely different strains like a DJ rotating by means of results. This exact manipulation of quick phrases is a method he employed on Sayso Says tracks like “Nunca Hacer Cocaina” to emphasise rhythm, however on REST IN BASS, they work as textural overload.
By way of manufacturing, REST IN BASS ranks among the many most adventurous rage initiatives. Certain, it nonetheless prioritizes noise over something, however these aren’t the standard looped, simple soundwalls; they’ve much more motion and vary. “Doe Deer” begins with kitschy blast beats and guitars earlier than exploding into darting VGM notes and laser 808s. It’s like if Uzi’s Pink Tape was deep-fried, or if somebody was enjoying Twisted Steel within the studio. “By no means Too Younger to Die,” with Chicago rapper Chuckyy, backs down from the rave tempo, although it maintains depth with dramatic orchestral stabs that sound straight from the Glo period. The drum patterns on “Model” have a throwback really feel that’s a comfortable match for featured artist Xaviersobased, however the mixture of SFX, the siren-like lead, and bowling-ball 808s douses every little thing in zoomer brainrot. Whereas the beats pull from numerous areas and scenes, they’re threaded collectively by unrelenting distortion, the lingua franca of REST IN BASS.
Che’s exhausting hedonism is normal in rage, although the album’s strongest moments come within the uncommon cases of vulnerability that give him extra character. On “Dior Leopard,” the album’s greatest observe, his indulgence raps really feel numbing till he name-drops his mom (“Momma discovered I used to be doing medicine, then she spazzed out/She’s not enjoying video games, OK, she kicked my ass out”). The tales of drug habit and infidelity are a lot extra urgent—as if this have been the data these mind-numbing drums and frenetic bass drops hoped to hide. Out of the blue, the mysterious Opium clichés collapse on themselves, revealing a touch of desperation. By the point the beat modifications and the road “I referred to as the plug, mentioned I’m dying” emerges atop the dizzying combine, it seems like we would not make it by means of the evening. The actual nausea units in when REST IN BASS seems like life or loss of life.
