“If there’s one thing I know in life, there’s no free rides...want me to bring you the receipt?”
Spouted from the mouth of one of New York’s most notorious underground rappers, Elucid, came an enticing, politically-charged set within Hackney’s overnight-transformed Café Oto. As one half of the duo collective, Armand Hammer, Billy Woods played the other vital role in tonight’s portrayal of the Black American experience in today’s culture, with a notably nostalgic East Coast hip-hop sheen.
Having come about earlier this decade in their collaborations, Armand Hammer have recently gained significant traction within the underground scene for their latest LP of last year, Paraffin, once aptly described as “smoggy beats rolling into each other”. And, much like tonight’s set packed within this artsy café, the tracks excavated over the next 50 minutes ultimately converged with each other in a fluid, biting, societal scrutiny performed by this unique duo.
Whilst I may concede that my knowledge of underground hip-hop, specifically the 80s golden age, may prove stunted against many in tonight’s sold-out crowd, this evening came to be an entirely new live experience for myself. With such lo-fi, gritty, repetitive bass refrains and 808s blurring into one another, these two rappers brought a distinct enough flavour of rapping styles to spur incessantly each other forward. Whilst the exact setlist of tonight’s servings ultimately proved difficult to note, the gutsy oration from Elucid and Billy Woods transcended my musically blurred vision into a night of enticing societal narrations.
Resembling tropes of MF Doom’s earlier lo-fi, abstract work of last decade, as well as Freddie Gibbs’ latest LP released this year, both rappers took on notable tropes of the evolving hip-hop scene overseen from these past couple decades. With such glitchy samplings strewn throughout tonight’s nostalgically unorthodox music, also came a distinct resemblance of MC Ride’s slurred vocals courtesy of Elucid’s rapturous lyricism. Grappling with an onslaught of readily-available influences, both sets of rappers convincingly condensed this for their hypnotically-bopping crowd clinging on to each and every uttered word.
Engaged in a simple 180-degree audience set-up, Armand Hammer effortlessly capitalised on the intensity and intimacy framed within this basic landscape of audio-visuals. Having personally sidelined this corner of hip-hop music to the avail of mainstream trap music over the past few years, it deemed somewhat refreshing to encounter such an abrasively intense environment - one which seemed so tangibly emotional and with such a sense of realism. Whilst these sorts of experiences may slip through the cracks of my live show radar from time to time, tonight ultimately opened my eyes to the significance behind 'underground rap' and its embedded effect within this country’s music scene.
Needless to say, though, the duo appeared to be going through the motions at various points of their unpolished set, with my continued search for interludes, crowd interactions, or sheer breakdowns to divide up the waters of this “smoggy” music going astray. Whilst the crowd’s request for the perfect closing song also came to no avail, tonight signified a near-return to the glorified roots of underground East-Coast hip-hop - one with a revamped sheen aligned with today’s political and cultural movements within the African American experience. In accordance with Elucid’s abundance of lifetime receipts, it’s safe to say that Armand Hammer will certainly keep this particular receipt - impressively selling out their first show across the pond in London.
7/10
Armand Hammer’s latest LP, Paraffin, is out now and can be found here.
The remainder of their UK dates this month can also be found here.
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