![]() ![]() This is a microcosm of QUARTERTHING, where the Chicago rapper roars over electro-powered beats with urgent confidence while skepticism is never far behind. Purp’s ferocious chorus on “Look at My Wrist” seems to satirize gloats of “damn, look at my wrist, dawg… damn, look at my crib, dawg” but he sure seems to revel in the glitzy debauchery that he portrays. Joey Purp’s QUARTERTHING has a humorous duality where he constantly mocks avarice while also joyously rolling around in its delectable vice. – BDĬhicago continues its output of savvy rappers who guffaw at major labels. So here’s to proof that rap music can still find fascinating and new ways to engage with the aesthetics of protest art in 2018. Veteran is probably also one of the best records so far about what it’s like being a relatively socially conscious person in the modern age, about the non-stop onslaught of news and the self-perpetuating outrage of online and about the politicization of existence in the era of universal celebrity and hyper-media-consciousness. The first word in a great many JPEG write-ups is “confrontational,” and that’s no accident his lyrics are sharp and pointed and angry and smirking and plenty other adjectives. His beats, all self-produced, sound like if you went back in time to 1988, kidnapped The Bomb Squad, took them to 2018, and made them make beats out of computer malfunction noises, careening from pummeling snares to hi-hats made out of ratcheting sounds to drifting post-cloud rap, but all arising from the same noise-first, fuck-your-feelings ethos. Veteran, the Baltimore artist’s breakout record, is actively harsh, willingly provocative, occasionally genuinely unpleasant, and altogether exhilarating. This year, the old guard’s records were outdone by other ones that were scrappier, fresher, and weirder. But for as long as rap’s been a genre, it’s been inextricably tied to the angst of the youth, to the kids on the ground level pushing the culture forward, and this year proved that’s still 100 percent the case. This is not to disrespect Drake, Kanye West, Eminem, Nas, Nicki Minaj, or Jay-Z, all of whom yielded projects this year. While our top-ten list does feature some hip-hop mainstays, 2018 saw a slew of heavyweights release records that do not appear in our top ten. The genre’s vision of cultural capital is expanding, subject matter broadening, sounds shifting and warping rappers are finding new ways to be funny and esoteric and cutting, striking new ways to thumb their noses at puritanical gatekeepers. ![]() Longevity in rap music is incredibly rare, and if 2018 is any indicator of the future, world domination is becoming not only more scarce, but less important in the age of infinite rap music, it can mean more to have a dedicated following than to get airplay. Unlike in political dynasties, which infiltrate society and have ramifications for decades, hip-hop crowns and exiles its luminaries at a restless clip. ![]()
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