CONWAY - "COOKED IN HELLS KITCHEN"

I RESPECT THE CAPS-LOCK HUSTLE. It's a good aesthetic in a high-noise environment, like, say, our entire seizure of a culture.

That extends to making rap videos look like early Rob Zombie shorts. Guns and drugs are trivial, rote, mandatory at this point. Throw some dead animals up there, fuck it. The goth chicks are a ham-fisted touch but for the most part this works. Dude is at least as committed to this act at Trent Reznor was. He also raps his ass off.

A couple years back I saw someone toss out "threat-rap" in a thinkpiece that was almost definitely about Chief Keef. It seemed so superfluous at the time, like "drum-beats" or "complaint-blues" -- but when it comes to CONWAY THE MACHINE, well, shit. He's one of the finest purveyors of threat-rap around.

This latest joint is just another brick in the wall, in that sense. Another banger off the conveyor belt. As a sign of things to come, though? This is pretty fucking interesting.

The Interscope Machine has made some Questionable Decisions in recent years -- consider talented nothingburger Logic, who is currently extolling the benefits of seeing a therapist. That's red meat for the blue state crowd, but it doesn't have shit to do with rap music.

In 2017, though, Iovine tentacle Shady Records started pushing the Buffalo brothers, Westside Gunn and Conway. Both of them combine the best aspects of Ghostface and Big L, which is a pretty outstanding recipe. There probably won't be any collaborations with Dido or Skylar Grey in the near future. This is good.

I've talked to a couple rap heads who can't get past the screwface delivery. I can't tell if that's an affectation, a stroke, or a knife wound: I also don't care. It doesn't bother me, especially since my primary communion with rap music is via headphones. Fuck what you look like. Can you spit?

The Buffalo brothers, man, WHOOOOOOOOOO. They can fucking spit. I'm a fan.