 Written by: The Administrator Despite a proclamation that 2024 would be the year I review whatever I want, audience expectations be damned, our coverage of hip hop here at the Sleeping Village has been lagging behind my actual listening habits to a pretty significant degree. Here's an attempt to remedy that! Atlanta's up-and-coming BabyDrill released this single on Friday, June 21st, and it's been on solid rotation all weekend. Worth talking about, methinks. I enjoyed ScoreGod, BabyDrill's album released back in February of this year, but admittedly haven't listened to with any regularity since the first few days post-release. With a limited beat variation and a lack of features on the back half, I did find his forceful monotone delivery to get a little repetitive. That said, several tracks were certified bangers. In the context of singles, his flow is fun and engaging. In any case, ScoreGod clearly demonstrated a lot of promise, and this is an overly expository way to say that I was excited to hear this latest track, "Dracula," outside of the context of a larger project. And this is quite possibly my favorite song from him yet. "Dracula" leans into the darker side of the current ATL trap aesthetic, and BabyDrill's delivery is urgent and hard-hitting, yet juuuuust effortless enough to indicate a certain air of confidence. His flow works quite well over the spooky beat, which is focused and polished. Bottom line? While the track doesn't really embody a particularly impactful experimental/horror vibe and is far from a sonic outlier in the current meta, "Dracula" is a pretty damn listenable track that bodes very well for future projects. BabyDrill - Dracula was released June 19th, 2024. BabyDrill can be found:
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Written by: The Administrator
The promo email for NODINE's Amateur Land was unexpected but far from unwelcome. The artist behind black metal outfit Ainor switched gears and now makes rap/trap/experimental hip hop under a new moniker, released via Syrup Moose Records? In the world of artistic development, that's an exciting switchup. My interest? Considerably piqued. While the genre tags may imply a shiny polish, this isn't clean stuff from a production standpoint--it feels like the rap equivalent of a classically homegrown bedroom black metal project. That, my friends, is by no means a bad thing. Amateur Land feels homegrown in the best sense, providing an eclectic spread that feels tangible and human and raw. There's some trap, some borderline rage-fueled horrorcore, some minimalistic boom bap, and requisite let-me-get-a-braggadocious-one-in-real-quick freestyles. Every track brings something new to the formula, giving the whole affair a very exploratory feel, almost like NODINE is attempting to map complex terrain via the light of glowstick. In a world where artists are all-too-oft trapped in a trademark aesthetic, I find significant value in a deliberately eclectic collection of sights and sounds. It can make for a jarring listening experience, but consider: being jarred is good. |
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