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Thursday, August 2, 2018
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Rap’s current state of affairs 
is puzzling, to say the least. 
Juggernauts like the Migos, Drake 
and J. Cole have put out some of the 
most stagnant music of their careers 
and have plateaued artistically. 
Pusha T appears to be the last of 
rap’s old guard who can drop a 
quality album. Female rappers like 
Cardi B and CupcakKe are blazing 
a 
much-needed 
trail 
critically 
and commercially. We finally got 
the Kid Cudi/Kanye West collab 
which would’ve blown our minds 
eight years ago, only released to 
much less fanfare; Cudi shines 
having confronted his struggles and 
addictions, while Kanye, to put it 
lightly, is taking crazy pills. Another 
burgeoning, mumbling, problematic 
superstar in XXXTentacion was 
murdered in broad daylight, but the 
public can’t immediately decide if 
that was a good or a bad thing.
While all this is going on, while 
Chief Keef is hunting 6ix9ine down 
on a cross-country beef, while 
rappers like Lil Pump and Trippie 
Redd are becoming the new norm, 
Denzel Curry sat perched, watching 
over this baffling bizarro world like 
a stone gargoyle. And with his latest 
full length TA13OO, he swooped in, 
with ghoulish demeanor and the 
precision of a silver stake piercing 
Dracula’s heart.
Critics are often quick to lump 
Denzel Curry into the ambiguous 
realm of SoundCloud rap. Although 
Curry is of the same DNA as 

fellow South Florida denizens like 
Smokepurpp and Ski Mask the 
Slump God, if anything, he’s the 
genre’s Grim Reaper. Here to take 
names and collect souls, Curry has 
made a name for himself for being as 
sharp as a swinging scythe and hard 
as steel. Even if you’ve never heard 
of him, there’s a chance you’ve 
heard of his insanely high energy 
“Ultimate” (most likely as the viral 
soundtrack to a handful of Vines in 
the platform’s last days).
On the mic, Denzel raps like a 
man possessed, with many a heart-
pounding beat to back him up. His 
2016 release Imperial managed 
to sustain the same verve of 
“Ultimate” for 40 minutes, so when 

he announced TA13OO last year 
(backed up by 13, a five-track EP 
of demos), his fanbase was rightly 
scared. The proper genre to describe 
Curry’s output is “music that makes 
you want to commit large-scale 
arson and/or tax fraud.” Another 
hour of hard-hitting insanity would 
be sure to start a real-life version of 
“The Purge.”
Yet while most of his previous 
work was turbulent, pedal-to-the-
metal momentum, TA13OO is smart 
to control its acceleration, starting 
at zero and gradually building up 
speed to get to 100. Split up into 
three “acts” of four to five songs 
each — Light, Gray and Dark — there 

is a flow of tone that revitalizes and 
re-energizes Denzel and keeps the 
album consistently sounding fresh. 
Even straight-up bangers can get 
repetitive sometimes.
Opening 
track 
“TABOO” 
is an oddly ethereal way to 
rope the listener in; Denzel is 
uncharacteristically soulful, singing 
his way through emotional damage 
and trauma and functioning as a 
spirit guide who’s warning us of the 
path ahead. “BLACK BALLOONS” 
and 
“CASH 
MANIAC” 
are 
refreshing quasi-summer grooves, 
smooth as the GoldLink feature on 
the former but peppered with talk of 
suicide and drowning in excess. But 
just when you thought Denzel was 
going soft on you, he ends Act One 
with “SUMO,” and the real madness 
of TA13OO begins.
“SUMO,” alongside Act Three 
cut “PERCS,” follow the same 
formula that Zeltron perfected on 
“Ultimate” — ten or so seconds of a 
neutered version of the main beat 
that puts you into the same scramble 
that sirens forewarning the coming 
of a natural disaster would, then 
a perfect storm of trenchant bars 
and unstoppable flow. The rest of 
the album sustains this brand of 
aggression, but Denzel Curry finds 
new ways to innovate and harness 
his raw power.
“SUPER SAIYAN SUPERMAN” 
is a detached two-minute sprint; 
imagine Denzel’s eyes rolling into 
the back of his head “Exorcist”-
style when he was recording 
that 
in 
the 
booth. 
“SIRENS” 
and “VENGEANCE” excellently 
incorporate the style of its guest 

rappers in J.I.D and JPEGMAFIA, 
respectively. Curry showcases his 
technically ability and impressively 
varies his cadence and delivery on 
the aptly-named “SWITCH IT UP.”
TA13OO never strays far from 
its carnival horror ride concept, 
which manages to ground its 
seemingly 
unrestrained 
zeal. 
Without proper explanation, the 
tracks are stylized in all caps then 
followed by a numerical spelling 
(“THE BLACKEST BALLOON” 
becomes 
“THE 
13LACKEZT 
13ALLOON,” for example). There 
is also an unholy reverence to the 
number 13, which Curry previously 
described as “something to be 
afraid of worldwide, the part of 
an 
unfortunate 
distorted 
life.” 
This 
twisted 
triskaidekaphobia, 
along with the embracing of the 
melancholy, paranoia and dark 
subject matter that frame the album, 
seems to be an unorthodox way of 
confronting fear. Denzel’s method 
of diminishing terror is allowing 
himself to mosh alongside it.
The scary themes like hatred, 
revenge and near-death experiences 
that haunt TA13OO’s halls only 
grow more frightening as the album 
approaches its fiery conclusion. 
The 
end 
of 
“VENGEANCE” 
followed by first few seconds of 
“BLACK METAL TERRORIST” 
are a beautiful little breather from 

the nonstop vehemence, but if 
someone like Denzel gives you a 
breather, you best know you’re in 
for something potent. “BLACK 
METAL 
TERRORIST” 
is 
the 
result of a fusion dance between 
“Ultimate” and “SUMO” and quite 
frankly the hardest fucking song 
you’ll hear all year. “I am the mark 
of the beast,” screams Curry, who 
moves 
“tortuously, 
killin’ 
[his] 
infidels effortlessly.”
While he certainly goes for 
the throat of his contemporaries 
on songs like “BLACK METAL 
TERRORIST,” 
Denzel 
has 
a 
concerned 
message 
for 
his 
troubled contemporaries on Act 
Two closer “CLOUT COBAIN.” 
Its accompanying video plays out 
like the nightmare you would have 
after watching “It” with the sound 
off and “Gucci Gang” on repeat in 
the background. From the title and 
simple lyrics, one would think this 
is yet another entry in the catalog of 
rap songs glamorizing the Nirvana 
frontman’s suicide for a shitty 
metaphor. However, Curry’s intent 
is subversive; the refrain “I just 
wanna feel myself, you want me 
to kill myself” and the visuals are 
both a criticism of the new class of 
rappers and a call to action.

‘TA13OO’ is a formal invite 
to Denzel Curry’s haunting

ROBERT MANSUETTI
Summer Senior Arts Editor

MUSIC REVIEW

LOMA VISTA RECORDINGS

TA13OO

Denzel Curry

Loma Vista Recordings

ARTS

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

