In the world of underground Hip Hop, three artists are making people start to turn their heads. The first two are the hip-hop duo Armand Hammer, comprised of Billy Woods and E L U C I D. The last one is produced by the Alchemist. All three have been pioneering the growing genre of Drumless, a type of hip-hop with minimal to no drums and more focus on simplistic beats. Armand Hammer was first formed in August 2012 and has been known collaborators ever since. Billy Woods is the most well-known out of the group with his projects “Hiding Places” and “Aethiopes” here. He developed more of a Hauntology style to his music, making his music sound eerie. As for E L U C I D, he is more known for his work with Armand Hammer. The Alchemist is probably the most well-known, as he has worked on many famous rappers’ projects like Earl Sweatshirt, Freddie Gibbs, Danny Brown, Westside Gunn, and even Kendrick Lamar, with probably his most notable work producing “Meet the Grahams” during “the beef.” Now, they come together for their second full-length collaborative album. But before that, they released two singles.
“Super Nintendo” is the first single from the new album. This song starts with an 8-bit style of synth that sounds like you are playing an old video game. The song talks about the innocence of being kids and wishing life could be as simple as playing a Super Nintendo all day. It’s not bad and does continue to give off that Hauntology vibe that we know with Woods, but it wasn’t really the most interesting thing. The video game sound effects get annoying after a while, and the Alchemist doesn’t add anything besides that. It’s very forgettable and not a great start for this album’s lifespan.
“Calypso Gene” is the last single before the album release, featuring vocals from Silka and Cleo Reed. This song is less Drumless than the others, but that doesn’t seem to harm it. It’s way better than the first single, as it feels more finished and you vibe to it more. The more grooving and jazzy with a light static in the background kind of feels like rain. It’s lo-fi and fits the lyrics, “Dip me in the water.” It’s super chill and nice to listen to compared to the first single, where 8-bit sounds get super annoying fast. With that, we move on to the album with a vibe that there will probably be more of an abstruse vibe to the production compared to the normal drumless production that the Alchemist is known for.
The intro to the album, titled “Laraaji,” opens with a fast, jazzy track featuring large guitar riffs that tear through the drums at times. This is a great beat, but a problem with this, similar to “Super Nintendo,” is that nothing changes and stays the same. Now, don’t get me wrong, there can be good beats that are repetitive, but this one remains the same for two and a half minutes! As for the lyric, it’s like they’re saying, “That’s right, we’re back,” and talking about what they normally talk about, like Black oppression, power, corruption, and the coldness of Earth. Pretty normal stuff from them, but nothing I haven’t heard before. I like it, but I wish a bit more, especially as Woods had better writing on the album he released this year.
The next track is no different. Called “Peshawar,” it’s pretty short, but it serves as a nice transition into “Calypso Gene.” It starts out with a nice piano intro before turning into an upbeat version of “Meet the Grahams.” It’s a pretty standard beat that goes by fast, which, as this is kind of like a transition track, is fitting and works.
The last song I want to talk about is “California Game.” This song features a long-time friend of the Alchemist, Earl Sweatshirt. Starting as one of the key members of Odd Future before the breakup, Earl has been a bit of a face of the drumless movement with albums like “Voir Dire” and his latest, “Live, Laugh, Love.” He has been featured on a bunch of Alchemist’s work for a long time, has had collaborations with Billy Woods and E L U C I D many times, so it’s only fitting that he makes an appearance on this album. The track starts immediately with Earl rapping to the album beat, making a laid-back flow that, while slow, tracks well and feels nice to listen to. My one problem with Billy Woods and E L U C I D’s style of rapping is that they focus on the lyrics rather than the flow. So, it creates this feeling like they don’t care about the song and care more about the message of the song, which isn’t a bad thing, but I think that makes it so that they seem lazy. That’s why Earl is a nice breath of fresh air as he adds the thing that was missing throughout this album with his flow.
Despite its shortcomings, I feel this album offers a nice handful of great moments and excellent production that I enjoyed, like the jazzy elements that add more than the boring or annoying repetition in the beats. But the bulk of the album didn’t impress me enough to want another collaboration from these three. I would give this album a 6.5 out of 10.
