"They can't find me, out the country recording classics, I get money, I'm still shopping for grams not f***ing fabrics, no this music s*** ain't payin' no bills," burgeoning rapper Doley Bernays spits over a detached wail in new single "Prey." The way he delivers the starving artist trope in his half-snarl, you know he's not kidding. Succeeding is an exigent demand for the Brooklyn native. He has to "make it" because failing would send him back to a frigid place where "these n***** wanna murder me." Where killing is synonymous with surviving.
If "Prey"'s narrative scope sounds bleak, it is and producers Matthew Burnett and Jordan Evans pay that lyrical desolation the utmost respect. Without Just In Case collaborator/A$AP Rocky producer MP Williams around, Burnett and Evans concoct a cloud rap beat that's insular instead of inviting. The drum machine snaps like a tightly pulled rubber band; leaving no room to run through. A synthesizer crawls at a snail’s pace before jumping into livelier "doot doot doots." When Bernays recalls "saying my prayers under the stars," another layer of guitar is peeled away. Each faintly ringing note is a pinprick to your consciousness, reminding you what Bernays is saying isn't far from the truth. "N***** die every day," he incisively puts it. Though none of the deceased have an opportunity to speak, Bernays provides them with first class representation on "Prey."
Doley Bernays' new EP Bond Place Hotel is out August 26.
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