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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
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