The East Atlanta rapper and his producers distill their sci-fi flows and alien sensibilities into their most cohesive project yet.
Young Nudy sometimes sounds like he hails from another planet, but he's rooted in a real place on Earth. The neighborhood that Nudy represents in the title of his new album EA Monster is East Atlanta—more specifically, Zone 6. As one of the many trap stars with experimental flows to arise from Atlanta in recent years (a wave that includes Gunna and the late Lil Keed), Nudy often garners comparisons to Young Thug and Future, and his artistic kinship with hip-hop auteur Pi’erre Bourne has inevitably sparked mentions of Playboi Carti. But it’s Zone 6’s most famous son whose influence reverberates throughout his music: You can hear a hint of Gucci Mane not just in Nudy’s drawl and “Yeah” ad-libs, but also in his effortless confidence, which drips off him like melting ice.
Nudy’s flow is like quicksilver, but he’s typically averse to clout-chasing co-signs or pop hooks, so his projects are often laser-focused. EA Monster clocks in at only 34 minutes, and Nudy keeps his circle tight here. There’s only one feature—a back-and-forth relay race with up-and-coming Atlanta rapper BabyDrill on “Duntsane,” evidence that Nudy has now built enough of a platform to share it with newer voices. The production team includes regular collaborators, like COUPE, Mojo Krazy, and his bosom buddy Pi’erre Bourne, who lends his inventive and futuristic touch to roughly half the tracks. The watery, Moog-like tones on “Kit Kat'' are curiously reminiscent of MeowSynth, a 2000s virtual synthesizer plug-in that drew on the meows of a cat named Baksik—an appropriate digital relic revived by a producer who grew up on MySpace and message boards. Elsewhere, the wet bass on “No Chaser” resembles someone squishing their fingers into slime, another moment where Bourne’s alien style is as unexpected as Nudy’s cadence.
The cohesiveness is due in part to seamless sequencing, with each track promptly sliding into the next, no bar a breath too long. Opening track “Nun To Do” is almost all bass and sturdy 808 kicks, with the synth line reduced to background buzz. At times, EA Monster plays with a vintage sonic palette, an unexpected move for a rapper who so often lives in the future. “Impala” combines a driving Memphis-type drum pattern with a MIDI bass guitar that wouldn’t feel out of a place on a 1990s No Limit cut; “Fresh as Fuck” blends vibrato-modulated synths and warbly, theremin-like special effects, the kind you’d hear in a 1950s B movie.
As relentless and in-your-face as Nudy can be, his voice rarely strays from a consistent volume or pitch, always sounding like he’s spitting while still holding the smoke in his lungs from a particularly fierce bong rip. When the daily grind ends, Nudy punches out with chilled-out stoner rap on “Ready.” “My Gang” opens with an inhale, before an echoing guitar swaddles Nudy, a hypnagogic, chillwave-adjacent piano line swaying in the background.
After nearly eight years together, Nudy’s creative unit is now closely bonded, which makes his music feel much more complete and organic than so much of the Atlanta scene. This crew knows how to translate Nudy's visions into reality: Not a beat or verse is phoned in or farmed out, and there’s no pressure to skew to other styles or latch onto trends. The production on EA Monster is a refined package, bottling his electric slime into a gleaming container, distilled to its purest essence. East Atlanta might define Young Nudy down to his album titles, but he remains somewhat mysterious and alienated, a phantom drifter who exists in a world of his own. The flavor of his hometown might be unmistakable, but EA Monster is a reminder that Nudy operates on a singular wavelength.
0 comments:
Post a Comment