2) I wrote about Orlando’s Armstrong and Grandaddy Souf for the RBMA carpetbagger column.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the whole retro subgenre thing and it reminds me of the thrash revival that happened in metal a couple of years back. Thrash never really went away but it did get super boring for a bit and then a few years back a bunch of young bands popped up doing that style (warbringer, merciless death, havok, bonded by blood, zombie holocaust, Mantic Ritual, lich king).
There are some parallels but I think within rap which borrows and samples so much lines get more blurred especially when everyone wants to have fucking secrets. With metal they might borrow riffs or maybe do a cover they don’t really just go jacking for beats and drop youtube triangle wormholes.
It’s weird, like I’m excited to see people making new music of styles that people don’t really do because I want more of that style to exist. Like these producers Hydroz were taking southern rap and making miami bass edits, lil scrappy at 140bpm type shit, it was super sick but never went anywhere because everyone wanted bmore remixes.
I guess I wish rap would take more from what some of the metal kids have done and toured with the older bands, warbringer and exodus for example. Like I’d be juiced for a Purp and Tommy Wright tour. That’s also why I enjoyed the whole Exquire, el-p, Killer Mike tour. El and Mike were enough on their own but it was dope to see some of the shows get reinvigorated with a mix of new and more veteran acts. Might give these young kids some fucking pointers on how to actually execute a live show too.