Few producers in hip hop have ever been able to create a vibe quite like Pete Rock. Listening to any number of tracks, you can find a way to float off in a matter of seconds. So it's no surprise that go-to weed rapper Mac Miller and the effortlessly cool Schoolboy Q would team up with Rock on a song.
Left off of Miller's breakthrough 2013 record Watching Movies with the Sound Off, "Melt" is cut from the same hazy cloth. Twinkles abound, strings are delicately plucked, and Rock's drums possess a gentle crispness instead of their typical boom-bap quality. Stereogum's Tom Breihan calls it "softly psychedelic" and I'm inclined to agree. "Melt"'s the type of song a rap fan would throw on before taking a hit of acid or smoking "cigarillos bigger than armadillos" as Miller does. Whatever your preferred leisure is, "Melt" provides a terrific soundtrack.
Stream RiFF RAFF's NEON iCON album now
Though RiFF RAFF's second studio album NEON iCON is scheduled to drop next Tuesday through Diplo's Mad Decent label, one of rap's resident weirdos has gotten antsy and released the whole thing for streaming now.
Anchored by the undeniably catchy, DJ Mustard assisted "How to Be the Man", NEON iCON is a blitzkrieg of brightly colored, chintzy sounding Southern hip hop that begs to be blasted out of a car and replayed at least a dozen times. And if Jody Highroller's presence is grating to you at all, as it is to many rap purists, the guests he wrangles for NEON iCON are proven entities. Diplo, Mac Miller, Harry Fraud, and Lex Luger all produce, while rappers: Childish Gambino, Mike Posner, Slim Thug, and Paul Wall guest.
If you want to take a dive, NEON iCON's available for streaming below and can be preordered here.
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Mark May 11, 2014 as the day any lingering doubts about Mac Miller were officially eradicated. While last year's Watching Movies with the Sound Off re-positioned Pittsburgh's Malcolm McCormick as a psych-rap kid in the clutches of the Odd Future/TDE/Brainfeeder crews, new mixtape Faces firmly entrenches him in those respective camps. Over the course of an unwieldy, but gorgeous hour and a half the "Donald Trump" rapper delves into loping weed-rap with the likes of: Schoolboy Q, Sir Michael Rocks (of Cool Kids), Earl Sweatshirt, Ab-Soul, frequent Flying Lotus collaborator Thundercat, Rick Ross, and perhaps most curiously Mike Jones. And though his laid-back delivery rarely bests his collaborators, he sounds so comfortable in these blurry surroundings that he's never fully vanquished.
The 9th Wonder produced "Rain" which appears near the end of Faces offers some of the best evidence of Miller's lyrical easiness. Over a rippling guitar figure, Miller leisurely spits "that prayer hand emoji, that s*** that injured Kobe" without once raising his blunted voice. He speaks on "running from my shadow" and deals with "high-heel depression," but 9th Wonder's chirping vocal samples and stuttering drums are so warm it's difficult to pick up on the icy mood Miller's conveying. Ditto for Vince Staples who breathlessly about "funerals" being "usual." As Miller attempts a "space migration" to flee from his problems, Staples remains grounded. When a stray bullet hits his brother, all he can do is declare fate to be dead. It's a far more morbid view of the world, but one that still dovetails with Miller's drizzling pain. If he was in the same area before, now's on the same wavelength.
"I rap better than most of these rap veterans," Vince Staples wearily raps in his anchoring verse over sighing James Bond horns and grumbling bass in new Earl Sweatshirt effort "Nebraska". In terms of rap boasts it's one of the more exasperated in recent memory. There isn't the slightest hint of excitement in Staples' voice as he rattles off the line. He sounds so lifeless that you'd think he was about to do a 25-year prison bid.
But that lifelessness is exactly what makes Staples and Odd Future cohort Earl Sweatshirt better than rappers in almost any weight class. The joy in listening to them resides in their impassivity. Quite often when you hear them rap it's easy to imagine a vacant stare consuming their face. There's no glower or scowl just an emotionless abyss. When Staples speaks of "sweet revenge," you know he'll have it because he clearly has nothing to lose. Similarly, Sweatshirt's promise to use a weapon and "make a peppermint outta that white tee" is a bite without a warning bark. The initial moniker of Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All Don't Give A F*** is fully fulfilled in Earl. While Tyler, the Creator growls, Earl murmurs over discordant piano keys about "switching through lanes, handling business on my side of the line." If he's going 150 the entire time, there would be no surprise. He's already admitted to being "frightened and scatterbrained," every action flows out of that toxic fountain. And if it all sounds too daunting, there's some "sweat talk" those "rap veterans" could probably offer you.
(Note: Because of how simpatico Staples and Sweatshirt are here, it wasn't easy to find a seat at the table for Mac Miller. But rest assured, the dude goes off. He manages to chow down on "shawarma" and shout out Chewbacca in the same weed-addled line that's "as calming as the Dali Lama.")
