#lapgan

Accent — Heems, Lapgan, Saul Williams

The instances of gratitude outweigh the tragic perceptions and realities that we are in

Proximity to, but alive enough to bear witness

The grief is in the fact that we have survived

So how can our survival honor this?

Manshoo

When the premises betray promises, who do you run to?

Your feet are tired of running from hate and they put a gun to your head

And so you pray for peace, become a piece of prey

Cried out, how do you muster tears for today?

Do I aspire to a hashtag of my memory?

They're taking my humanity, it's draining of my energy

How many likes will my hate crime receive?

How many times will the hate crimes deceive?

It's easier to make a meme than to have a dream

'Cause to Heems it just seems that they deem as a scheme

Can you flee when they treat you like dogs with the fleas?

You say please, but they beat you like dogs with disease

And the plans dried up and you're out of tears

And your visa ran out so you're out of years

And how does my accent sound when I'm crying?

How does my accent sound when I'm dying?

When I'm dying, when I'm dying

How does my accent sound when I'm crying?

How does my accent sound when I'm dying?

When I'm dying, when I'm dying

How does my accent sound?

Heems & Lapgan - LAFANDAR

Music fans are some of the most fickle types of fans I’ve ever seen, but rap fans in particular are some of the worst. It’s usually the fans that mainly listen to rock and metal that dabble in rap, because they seem to place rap to a higher standard than other kinds of music. At the very least, they whine about rap music with “dumb” lyrics, but also listen to the most braindead rock and metal you’ll ever heard with lyrics just as bad and stupid. These types of fans think that the only “real hip-hop” artists have intelligent lyrics, just like they think that real rock artists have “guitars” and can’t use electronic instrumentation. Sometimes there’s nothing wrong with a rapper or even rock band just making music because it’s fun, not because they feel as though they need to say something.

Rapper Heems, most famously of the late 00s rap group Das Racist that was composed of Southeast Asian members and had a laidback, clever, and smooth sound, is back in six years with his new album, LAFANDAR, but it’s billed as a collaboration with producer Lapgan. He handles the production here, and he should get his due, but I’m getting ahead of myself. I had no idea this even came out in the beginning of the year, until I was recently looking for the best rap albums from the year so far and I was pleasantly surprised to see that. At 34 minutes, I was really excited to check this out, and I wasn’t disappointed with this album whatsoever.

The reason I bring up the idea of rap fans whining about lyrical quality is for two reasons: you can rap about nothing, essentially, and still be a lot of fun and clever, but there’s also nothing wrong with having fun and this album is the best example of an artist having fun. Heems is rapping just to be rap, and he said in interviews that he wanted to use this album to show people that he can still rap. He can most certainly still rap, and this record is 34 minutes of him rapping over some great production that has a lot of Southeastern influence, along with some wonderful guests that complement his own sound.

// Middle Kids use their powerfully raw voice and plodding drums and guitar to demonstrate exactly how close they are to completely losing it on Bend.

// Vampire Weekend returns by juxtaposing baroque strings and piano with dissonant synth screeches to highlight the feeling that life is slipping away on Capricorn.

// Heems, Lee Scott, and Cool Calm Pete take turns trading bars and boasts across some of Lapgan's ominous Punjabi production on Baba Ganoush.

// Idles utilize droning guitars and skittering percussion to put our nerves right on the precipice in order to say no gods, no masters on Grace.

Song of the Week 02/23/2024

Heems and Lapgan - I'm Pretty Cool

My dough nuts/ Ich bin ein Berliner