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Harley Geffner has the mid pack in the stash because he's got too much work to do.

Blue Bucks Clan - No Rules 2

Jeezy and DJ of the Blue Bucks Clan live such luxurious lives that it almost rubs off on you. A listen through their new album No Rules 2 takes you to the velvet lounges in the back of the strip club, with the most expensive liquor and the baddest women. Their plotting of moves in real time brings you right there, considering every aspect or annoyance that comes with having as many women and as much designer as they do. The Balenciaga store clerk is sick of them, they have to kick people out for stealing from the Airbnb, and Jeezy has to sneak around the mansion with his girl’s cutest friend. These lifestyle raps are as slick as they come.

Skilla Baby - "Pain"

Everything Detroit’s Skilla Baby touches feels cinematic. It’s a similar feeling I get from listening to 42 Dugg, and I think it has to do with the rattling timbres of their voices. Each line comes out like a low engine rev that paces their songs. They both dig deeply into these sweet straight-line rhythmic pockets, which makes any subtle deviation or tonal shift sound so striking. It could be a pause for breath or a small change in rhyme scheme, but they frame the whole song in a way that builds anticipation and makes it all feel very high stakes.

Bris - "No Hope"

Being a fan of rap today means being intimately familiar with loss. As we develop close and personal relationships with the artists who soundtrack our daily lives, they become a part of us. Just as our closest friends shape the people we become, the artists who give us the backdrops over which we experience joy, dread, and every other emotion become etched into our personhood. And it’s like losing pieces of yourself to see young rappers leave this Earth with as much regularity as they do.

I’ve been poking around Bris’s discography since his passing the other week and it’s a weird feeling developing a bond with an artist that’s already gone. It’s a mix between the spark phase, where you feel a light go on as the lingo, flows, and style really start to click with more exposure and the empty feeling we experience listening to a posthumous album. It’s all very confusing. Bris was the exact same age as me, and as his music was starting to resonate on a more personal level this week, it’s upsetting that I won’t get to watch him grow with me.

Shoreline Mafia - "Change Ya Life"

Shoreline Mafia have never sounded better. “Change Ya Life,” which is one of the first singles from their upcoming full-length album, does a great job balancing Ogheesy’s radio-ready pop hook with the groovy bass line Fenix rips his verse over. Credit to Helluva for giving them the perfect beat to make a perfect summer song with. This is as clean and glossy of a song as Bands, and I suspect it’ll have a similar run.

Bktherula - "Summer"

Bktherula is a hypnotist. When she gets on celestial beats like this one produced by Digital Nas and Scoop, she distorts all sense of time, place, and being. Her vocals wrap around you in a way that feels almost pre-natal as she guides us through the inevitable past, present, and future of the universe. Add it to the “acid in the desert” playlist.

The Rap-Up: Week of July 6, 2020