Rap Song of the Week breaks down all the hip-hop tracks you need to hear every Friday. Check out the full playlist here. Today, BROCKHAMPTON return with their new single, “Big Pussy.”
BROCKHAMPTON have announced their final album, The Family, and on lead single “Big Pussy,” Kevin Abstract builds a funeral pyre and sets the band on fire. The track begins with a sample containing the words, “Fuck you,” and while it doesn’t appear to be directed at anyone in particular, if there were any doubt about Kevin’s feelings, he opens his first verse the same way: “Fuck you to anyone that claim that they got me/ When my heart was low, it turn to kami-kami-kamikaze.”
With those words ringing in your ear, “Big Pussy” starts to feel like a final suicide mission. It’s one of the few BROCKHAMPTON tracks to feature only one artist, and Kevin Abstract doesn’t sound pleased about that fact. He spits, “The group is over without being on the album/ I’m back and ready, Ciarán had to bring it out me,” a reference to the track’s producer Ciarán McDonald, aka bearface.
Kevin also complains that “the label needed 35 minutes of music” before he could move on with his life, and raps, “The show is over n****, please stop harassing me/ Stop asking me, it’s bad enough for me to deal with this tragedy/ On my own (on my own, on my own, on my own).”
Luckily for us, Kevin slaps on his own. After a free jazz frenzy, the first movement of the song settles in with a roiling bassline that sounds the way anger feels in your stomach. The second verse shifts to a ’90s R&B vibe, less furious assault than a rueful breakup. BROCKHAMPTON is just about dead, and whatever hard feelings led to this point will fade with time. But the music remains, banging until the last breath.
— Wren Graves
News Editor
YUNGMORPHEUS – “SONNY’S TRIANGLE”
Two minutes is all it takes for YUNGMORPHEUS to make himself at home on DMH’s soulfully smooth lo-fi production. A track that exudes serenity, “Sonny’s Triangle” is a hypnotic listen that sees the rapper enlightening listeners with a plethora of advice, including, “Careful where you place your close ties you might be bleeding for them.” For MORPH, knowledge and flow feel like second nature, making the latest track off his forthcoming EP, Burnished Sums, a litmus test for a lyrical odyssey that envelops the audience into the artist’s mind. — Joe Eckstein
