on the pulse - 2022 - #22 - freddie gibbs, open mike eagle, billy woods, shygirl, ka, saba, the koreatown oddity
The Koreatown Oddity - ISTHISFORREAL? - So I was late to this LA rapper - active in the underground through the 2010s, broke out in 2020 with a great, chill autobiographical project, but apparently lost folks with this one this year, clocking under 25 minutes… and I get why. Now this is not bad - it’s more a sound collage experience drenched in smoky, offkilter patchworks of samples, touches of 80s R&B, and a heavy Open Mike Eagle influence in its melodies, dry humour, and stark metacommentary on existential emptiness and commodified Black performativity, both within Black culture and at America at large. It’s also explicitly designed to provoke discomfort, referencing misophonia and with its accent shifts and freeflowing song structures, but ultimately finding an absurdist center for oneself. What else to say or prove - a tight, self-contained experiment, cool listen!
Saba - Few Good Things - I know I should like Saba more than I do - he's a good rapper with confessional, detail-rich storytelling, and I did like CARE FOR ME! I don't really go back to it - a few too many elements that don’t quite work - but I wasn’t about to skip this, so once again late to the punch… it’s at least easier to revisit? Melodic and better balanced in its brighter, shambling production - outside of the darker, minimalist trap cuts - and while Saba’s vocal contortions feel hit-and-miss again in the shadow of his influences, he’s got enough guests and sharp flows so they’re not that distracting. I do like how this album feels more thoughtful and secure while conscious of how success - not just money - shifts his priorities, especially to his family and roots, amidst systems built to trap or drag him underfoot. I like it more in snippets than as a whole, but still very good, worth hearing.
Ka - Languish Arts - So Ka dropped two albums in one day, both ten tracks apiece and clocking under a half hour, so let’s talk about the ‘first’ one… and it's definitely a Ka album, so you get the methodical and layered bars, the dusty percussion if any at all, the veteran stoicism, and a haunted past where against brighter, more melodic but elegantly tragic samples he sounds more despairing and confessional than ever. It bleeds painstaking honesty, where being truthful in his lane has led to limited success and no fewer demons, especially when old demons never brought as much success amidst corrupted, racist systems, but a man like him wouldn't compromise otherwise. And yet while this isn’t far from Ka’s usual material - and some of the sung hooks don’t quite work - this might be the most I’ve enjoyed a Ka album since Honor Killed The Samurai - great stuff!
Ka - Woeful Studies - Okay, second Ka album, which many have tagged as the more experimental, aggressive project which more tend to like… and I can see why, as it’s a bit closer to his rougher grimier material but there’s a different edge. His flows are faster, the aggressive darkness feels more palpable against the wheedling guitars, the samples feel rooted in revolutionary action rooted in Black activism in Brownsville, and with more tangible context that for as much as Ka recognizes the decay around his community and would burn it all down, it’s still his home… he’d prefer to teach, put in the work to build, and fight fires. The odd thing is that does make the album flow a lot faster, and you become conscious of the runtime under a half hour, so the atmosphere doesn’t quite coalesce up until the final few songs which are excellent, but he was 2 for 2 here, check this out!
Shygirl - Nymph - Alright, following the critically acclaimed run of EPs leaning on oily but sharply focused jungle, UK garage, and hip-house, we have a proper full-length debut… and it’s a more lethargic, hyperpop- and R&B-accented project with softer synths when they’re not glassy and creaking or pulling from house, more autotuned singing alongside the flows, traces of gentle, 2000s electroacoustics, and rattling trap percussion or garage drum machines almost closer to PinkPantheress. So it’s certainly varied, and Shygirl’s hushed but explicit content highlights how sex is as much of a metaphor for emotional yearning and connection than just innuendo, which is a good emotive core. I do think the slower tempos, more restrained hooks, and certain tonal choices don’t quite connect consistently, it’s certainly more uneven… but the best moments grew on me, it’s good stuff.
billy woods - Church - This is the second time billy woods has put out two albums in a year, and while Terror Management didn’t really click in 2019, after the implacable jungle of Aethiopes, this album is leaner, clocking just over a half hour and all produced by Messiah Musik, taking billy woods’ usual backdrop of hazy, shuffling samples and strips it back, albeit keeping it smoked out and murky. That works for a more direct, personal, and quotable album, the underlying subtext being a necessary breakup of which he’s not over, set amongst end-times where ossified, exploitative systems are juxtaposed with those prohibited but can really heal - an ode to your forgotten dealers - and yet where full revolution might not be enough to fully nourish the soul. Familiar themes by now, but real heartbreak adds some new pathos - incense of a different strain. Not my favourite of his, but absolutely worth hearing.
Open Mike Eagle - A Tape Called Component System With The Auto Reverse - This was one of my most hotly anticipated albums this year, Open Mike Eagle can get there… and yet I quite didn’t like this as much as I wanted. I think it’s the production, taking spare, shambling grooves with creaking samples and warped vocals but with less melodic foundation, so the subtler moments don’t have that stickiness. But that’s the point: it’s intentionally offkilter, pulling from old tape decks of fractured non sequiturs, a brutally honest career and mental retrospective through a mosaic of absurd juxtapositions, wry downbeat braggadociousness, and pathos straining to rebuild connections, inherently messy but contextualizing a few years of self-destruction, loneliness and tangible loss. So songcraft is looser - might work better in pieces than as a whole - but I’ll still call it great, just not quite among his best.
Freddie Gibbs - $oul $old Separately - What’s tough about being a Freddie Gibbs fan since 2014 is, well, Pinata and Alfredo and Bandana, so an expensive major label breakthrough isn’t quite not enough to really impress me unless the guests and content step up. And yes, rich, sensual samples and more of his singing remind me of Shadow of a Doubt - Gibbs getting his Ja Rule on exposes how he's not as strong of a singer as he thinks he is - and strong verses from Anderson .Paak, Raekwon, Pusha T, and even Scarface and DJ Paul help Freddie Gibbs ensconce himself in a penthouse of fast flows, cocaine, and angst-inflected bravado as he’s finally broken through and settled old grievances - the run on the back half of the album is legit great. But a slow start, lethargic pace, underpowered hooks, and a feel we’ve heard all of this before keep this from his best - it’s great, but only just.