Drill music is under attack! That particular flavor of rap, birthed in the underbelly of Chicago’s poorest districts and characterized by its plain spoken and nihilistic lyrics, became a local hit immediately, better reflecting the reality of survival for many living outside the notice of politicians and social safety nets. Its videos tend to be shot guerrilla style, in derelict housing buildings. Its instrumentals are usually at a mid tempo, requiring a relentless and aggressive flow to fill out what would otherwise be dead space. Chicago artists like Chief Keef, Lil Durk, and King Von were its initial vanguards, but It quickly spread – first to New York (think Pop Smoke or Fivio Foreign) and then England (like Central Cee), and in the lord’s year 2022, has become the predominant mode of the most popular genre of music in this country.
As much as drill inspires the underserved, it scares the overseers; at only 16, Chief Keef (arguably the inventor of drill) signed a multi million dollar record label with Interscope. In the same year, he became the target of federal drag nets, which kept him in and out of prison and his career stalled for the next 10. Recently, Eric Adams, the weirdo new mayor of New York, who behaves like someone who has been struck by lightning many times, has promised to ban drill music; can you imagine, this is something politicians are spending their time on, when multiple real crises sit unaddressed?
This is my long winded way of dedicating this mix to Chicago drill rapper King Von, who was tragically shot and killed in 2020, only a few weeks after the release of his debut album on a major label. That tragedy has fueled his best friend Lil Durk to pen verse after ferocious verse and clawed his way to the top of the mainstream Billboard charts. That murder snuffed out the potential a massive talent; in February, about a year after his death, King Von’s posthumous album What It Means To Be King dropped, and against all odds is frankly excellent. Von wears his heart on his sleeve over 19 tracks and lets it all out, whether those emotions be violent, anxious, lovelorn, or ecstatic. I’ve included a few selections from that album on this playlist which I hope show the diversity of his corpus, as well as the dimensions of drill artists its critics purposefully ignore.
But first! This playlist kicks off with the iconic DNA remix of Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner. With simple, prosaic lyrics and an instantly addictive beat, it’s no wonder my sister and I were absolutely obsessed with this song circa the year 2000. It was actually the song used as the test case for tuning MP3 technology, e.g. the music format which has dominated the last 20 years. Afterward, we have the return of Maggie Rogers with That’s Where I Am, her first release in over a year and the lead single for her forthcoming album. A relatively spare production backed by hand claps and a 12 string guitar allows her megawatt voice to shine, belting a giddily romantic ballad animated completely by love.
Charli’s Move Me plays next; it’s the type of modern dance record that is missing from much of her latest album CRASH, but also contains Charli’s most sultry vocals and a surprising vulnerability. It’s also got a great structure to it, including one of my favorite pop tropes, which is when the music drops out right at the beginning of the chorus, mixing forward the singer’s anthemic vocals, before it all comes roaring back in to the mix.
The truly lovely Bussdown plays next, on which Latto and Kodak Black duet their way over a piano-led instrumental which seems to take its cues from Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles. Seriously, play them together back to back and tell me you don’t know what I’m talking about. Tie The Knot is track 2 on Syd’s outstanding sophomore (solo) album, Broken Hearts Club. Despite its early placement on the track list, it’s a joyful respite from the leitmotif of heartbreak which permeates the rest of the record, and a hopeful ode to finding new love. While Syd typically trades in a low key R&B mode, Tie The Knot is animated by trip hop touches and high hats.
Then, singer/songwriter/violinist/genius Sudan Archives hits us with new single Home Maker. Here, she flips the term on its head, using home as a sort of metaphysical concept, which her presence makes whole. It starts mellow before building to a driving tempo, layering North African drum beats and sweeping strings into an already intricate arrangement.
Civ Pierre’s Would You is a smooth, yet dynamic and energetic piece of trap R&B sourced from my friend Shawn Sakamoto’s (@ShawnSakamoto on instagram) playlist, which he also happens to create monthly. He manages to unearth rare material like this one (I can’t find, like, any real writing about Civ Pierre) and I encourage you to check those out if you’re chasing underground sounds. After that, Vietnamese-American / Houston born artist keshi makes another appearance on the mix with GET IT, from his new full length LP Gabriel. While most of that album is a slow paced R&B ~*vibe*~, GET IT follows the formula that made his breakout cut beside you so eminently addictive, combining his angelic falsetto with a big, trunk rattling beat and distorted vocals.
Princess Nokia turns the energy back up with her return to the mix in her latest banger No Effort. This track is purpose built to play over a high energy party montage in a movie (you know the ones), delivering dozens of braggadocios bars, big 808 drums and a beat that interpolates what I think is a sitar. Nokia has been cooking just under the notice of the mainstream consciousness for a few years now, well poised to blow up any day now.
The ratchet energy keeps going with King Von’s Trust Nothing, which is one of my favorite examples of a straight up drill track on the record. Von’s gruff voice makes the litany of insults he hurls throughout the track sound utterly convincing, even when they’re honestly kind of funny (“ho thinkin she smart / I know she a dummy”). Moneybagg Yo acquits himself very well to this genre, delivering a smooth drill verse in his signature country drawl that matches up perfectly with Von, which is even more impressive when you consider Moneybagg’s verse was most likely recoded after Von’s death.
After that we have Stick, from Dreamville’s new D-Day tape. I This is one of those tracks where I am intentionally challenging my listeners, because at first blush, the repetitive, war like chant of “NEW STICK” is going to sound grating. Why would you put this on here, Anthony? Well keep listening, curious listener. Sheck Wes, who went viral in 2018 with the similarly aggressive Mo Bamba, kicks off this posse cut bragging about his new long rifle, or “stick”. As the song goes, the Dreamville crew trade verses and flows rapidly, never letting the song get boring even of the course of 4+ minutes. JID in particular continues to prove why he is the star of this crew, while even J Cole sounds alive to me in a way he hasn’t since NoName body checked him into the shadow realm. This is the kind of song you toss on when you’re struggling mightily under, like, the weight of a new one rep max bench press attempt. You know what I’m talking about, brah.
midwxst’s okay is going to be similarly off-putting at first, steeped as it is in the aesthetic of ‘maximalism’. That sound was popularized by legendary group 100 gecs on their 2019 album 1000 gecs which, along with its corresponding remix album, put so-called hyper pop and maximalism on the map. It’s characterized by big, distorted productions that often drown out the vocal mix, with wizz-bang-whirrr sound effects peppered throughout like it’s a dubstep drop. It’s a potent and intoxicating mix that brings the head banging quality you’d typically get out of heavy metal into emo/trap productions. Featured guest feature brakence makes it look all too easy as he hops on the final minute of the track.
Calming the mix’s energy down is the hood elegy What Happened To Virgil. Herein, Lil Durk is joined by Gunna to mourn the passings of King Von, Durk’s late brother Dthang, and Virgil Abloh, the first black creative director for Louis Vuitton and inventor of the Off White brand, whose untimely passing from cancer shocked the world late last year. The circumstances around the track are admittedly morbid and quite bleak, so kudos to Durk and Gunna for spinning something melodic and resembling fun with the subject matter. BENEE’s Never Ending plays next, for the simple reason that I am a sucker for dreamy electro pop. Massive, maximalist bass hits (there’s that word again) build as the song progresses, picking up raucous drums and a dancey chorus that give the track a thumping pulse; it’s these touches that help separate BENEE’s music from all the other Billie Eilish-alikes who have sprung up in the past few years.
My Love comes via Florence + The Machine, and represents a much more successful bite at the EDM apple than the band’s previous efforts. All of the singles teasing their next album release so far have been excellent, but this one in particular has an irrepressible groove, with big disco flourishes that get your toe tapping right out of its boot. Rosalia bleeds emotion onto the, er, eccentrically titled HENTAI, easily one of the most purely beautiful songs across this entire mix. Sounding like a perfect student of Regina Spektor, she expresses sexual appreciation for her lover over a spare piano instrumental that gradually weaves in drums for a backing beat. You may not understand the lyrics, but in Rosalia’s own words, it *sounds* “so so good”.
Next up we have a double header from Charli XCX, beginning with Every Rule. Every Charli record is required to contain at least one downtempo electronic ballad, and for CRASH, Every Rule is it. She reunites with producer A.G. Cook (who is laying down some really sumptuous synths) and gets vulnerable for a moment to tell the tale of a new relationship forged from adultery. I sometimes write about “Evil Charli” in these notes, and I think that applies here. She isn’t afraid to present herself as straight up unlikable in the interest of expressing herself as honestly as possible. Her gauzy vocals create a heavenly texture, and while normally, with most musicians, I can’t actually tell they have an English accent when they are singing, but not so with Charli. Somehow it comes all the way through in her singing; take for instance, how she manages to rhyme “way” with “free” (“but I gotta say / I want it this way / these moments really set me fraaayyy”).
Afterward is Twice, a song which I increasingly believe is the best off of CRASH. Despite the infectiously repetitive chorus and a melody which is like candy on the ear, the song is sort of an existentialist meditation on death, filtered thru the lens of Charli’s party girl persona. More specifically, the impermanence of life and the urgency of living while you still draw breath. In Charli’s world, the ultimate release would be to “die happy thinkin bout my best friends”.
Having wisely dropped the “Mu” at the front of her stage name, Latto recently completed her rebrand with the release of her new album 777 (get it? Latto? Lotto?). To my ear, it’s a step up for her, reaching a crescendo on Sunshine, which feels like a little drop of summer here in April. The gospel inflected production is suitably warm, as is Latto’s sassy verse. Factor that in with two big league feature contributions from Lil Wayne and Childish Gambino (who has not released a recorded verse since March of 2020) and baby, you got a hit goin!
What’s My Name is a deep cut off of Fivio Foreign’s new album, building its beat around a sample of Destiny Child’s Say My Name. You’re really tempting fate when interpolating Beyonce into your cut, so it’s a good thing that featured artists Queen Naija and Coi Leray acquit themselves well to the drill beat, managing to pull off a song that could have been a disaster.
Turning the heat back up with an offbeat bop, GOOD PUSS. Up until late 2019, Swedish artist COBRAH was working as an elementary school teacher during the day and moonlighting as a hyper sexual songstress, influenced, appropriately, from the BDSM club scene in her native Stockholm. Since taking on music full time, she’s established herself a presence in “gay workout music” (her words) which has slowly made its way to the states. Fellow sex-forward musician CupcakKe hops onto the remix, taking it to the next level, as she delivers an absolutely filthy verse with laser guided technical precision and loads of quotables (“this ain’t no non profit pussy / bitch you payin my bills / its like a new jar of jelly / hit the back til it spills”).
Another Man’s Jeans is playlist-staple Ashe’s most upbeat release in years, with a jaunty instrumental and unseasonably summery tune. Accessing some villainy and still very much in her post-divorce arc, you can expect themes of reclaiming sexual agency and humorously ironic lyrics. It ends with a big electronica breakdown reminiscent of the quasi-experimental Kansas, my favorite cut from her debut album. Then, Lexi Jayde continues to impress with her Taylor-Swift-Meets-Olivia-Rodrigo musical style, coming thru with the charmingly bitter hate to be you. Unlike some of her contemporaries, she doesn’t totally sanitize these what are essentially musical diary entries, refusing to redact the passages which might make her sound vain or mean (“it’s funny how you didn’t cheat with / somebody hotter than me / I swear I’m not trying to be mean”). Whatever she’s so pissed off about (I don’t know her life), she communicates that feeling effectively through music, which is a quality I admire. I believe some scientists – whom I just made up – refer to it as the Alanis-Effect. She puts a little English on the song and its pointed message, signing off with a giggling “I hope he hears this song”.
Alt rock in the style of the late 90s/early 00’s has always been beabadoobee’s lane, an influence she takes to a whole new level on Talk. Tapping into a sound reminiscent of legendary acts like Sleater Kinney or Le Tigre, the track is absolutely flooded in a sea of drums and thrashing guitars. Bea waxes sentimental and maybe just a little regretful about staying up so late on a Tuesday. At the end of the night all she wants is some uncomplicated, like another pair of lips to lock onto. There’s something bitter (“we go together / like the gum on my shoe”) and dejected (“you don’t exist / you’re my imagination”) which adds texture to what seems like a simple bop; one thing is for sure, I eagerly anticipate Bea’s forthcoming album, Beatopia.
While her career will likely never reach the high it hit in 2015 with her breakout hit Gold, Kiiara has been consistently delivering addictive bits of electropop since then. microdose has no ambitions beyond entertaining and getting one’s body moving, with a violin incorporated in the mix giving the track a little extra personality. My Fault plays next; I had to hold myself back from adding even more Von tracks to the mix, but ended up on this inclusion because it’s a great song and I think it shows the versatility of so-called drill rappers. Von’s gift for story telling was always vivid and specific, painting a very clear word picture (“that nigga beat on me / just wanna cheat on me / he put his feet on me”). He does so in a way which is honest to the point of being pretty amusing; in describing the need to seize love when you can actually find it, even under terrible circumstances, he says: “I met this bitch up in a wake but she from outta town / and its fucked up how we first met / but that’s my baby now”.
Blurred View is the only Big Thief track I chose to include on this mix (shocking!) but it is a major highlight of their newest record. Consisting of little more than a bass guitar and some drums, it has a slightly sinister sound to it, all the better for Adrianne Lenker to deliver a four minute stream of spoken word gems. Just to illustrate what I mean when I gush over the sheer poetry that woman can deliver, here’s a selection of the lyrics I found coolest or most resonant from the track:
- I am the private room / the quiet croon / the grey eye blinking on the new moon
- Within the last kiss / I am the genesis / while the earth rolls bleeding from its axis
- I am the teeth sharp / the lips read / what is unfeared / and what is unfed
I don’t know. I’m just bowled over by it. Anyway, the claustrophobic feeling of the last track continues as we roll right into the playlist’s coda, beginning with a track which is virtually unknown but has stuck with me for years, Hold Me by cln. It’s a gorgeous and otherworldly, starting slow before a wall of synthesizers explode over the beat.
Turn the volume up loud for this last one because you know I’m not ending this mix on a bummer note. Styx’s Lady plays us out, because who couldn’t use the energy of a big, cheesy, romantic 70s power ballad to round out this mix? This song, apparently the first song which lead singer Dennis DeYoung wrote for his wife Suzanne Feusi, is actually credited as the FIRST power ballad. It’s easy to see why. The acoustic piano backed vocals twinkle sweetly across the track’s first couple minutes, before exploding into a maelstrom of drums and electric guitars while somehow managing not to lose any of its loving sentiment.
🤔 😳 Questionable Lyrics Zone 🧐🤨
- “I’m holdin her down / she can’t do no runnin / her ass in the air / so I put my thumb in” — King Von (Trust Nothing). A classic, totally outta pocket bar from a hood legend. Lmao. No one asked!
- If you’re listening to GOOD PUSS around a kid or older relative, you could probably convince them COBRAH is gushing about a “real good purse” she loves. Not sure what to tell them about CupcakKe’s verse. That’s your problem.
- All this time I thought Keshi was Japanese (based on his stage name) so learning his true Vietnamese heritage helps explain the spoken French at the beginning of GET IT, considering, ya know, France’s quarter century occupation of Vietnam
- Another Man’s Jeans – Ashe. When listening to this song, mentally replace the word “jeans” with “dreams” and it still hangs together, lyrically
👨💻 Stray Observations 📝
- Dry lightning — also called summer lightning, silent lightning, or heat lightning (as my favorite Mitski track is titled) is a phenomenon in which lightning strikes from close-to-the-ground, without any accompanying rain or thunder claps. It can be seen for miles from its occurrence, making it exceptionally beautiful but also very destructive, and becoming more common as climate change worsens
- The cover image is a photo of the young actor Mads Mikkelsen from the 2001 Danish film Monas Verden (Mona’s World). I did that for a few reasons. 1) he is my forever Hannibal. Bring it back!! 2) my friend and first listener, Kelly, has a thing for him, and 3) he’s replaced Johnny Depp as Grindelwald in the new Fantastic Beasts movie, and will almost definitely have to endure online abuse from Depp stans for it. That franchise will likely, fucking hopefully, be put to reset after this entry, but I at least hope that the role bought Mads a big new house or a bunch of wine or whatever he likes.
- On Sunshine, Lil Wayne makes reference to “the god of the sun and the light / like Apollo”, the god who Cassandra (as in What Cassandra Saw) served. I know, I’m really reaching for a connection here, but that’s why these are stray observations. I guess I just like that he pulled a bit of Ancient Greek Myth into a mainstream pop song
- Speaking of which, Maggie Rogers has announced the release of a new album, making manifest my call for new music from her in a playlist note a couple of weeks back. She’s even dropped a single from it, which I mentioned earlier. Wowie! My powers are growing.
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