Father and his Awful Records camp may have taken over from Odd Future as rap's reigning absurdists. On "Who's Gonna Get F***** First," the title track off the Atlanta rapper's brand-new album, he interpolates "Hush, Little Baby," turning the classic lullaby into a promise to buy a girl a bag of weed, right before asking her what she knows about origami. With its carefully composed, piano-driven core, sluggishly rapped punchlines, and under-the-breath ad-libs, it sounds like typical Father fare. He certainly seems to having a lot of fun these days, even if the first verse reminds us that things aren't always as they appear: Smoked the pills to coke, youth in revolt/ That stuff you use to cope, just hand me the rope/ Cause I'm stressed and depressed, dressed in distress.—Rawiya Kameir
Tinashe's beat selection on her just-dropped Amethyst mixtape skews toward the more experimental end of things. She taps Ryan Hemsworth for the auto-tuned "Wrong," and even brings to mind Arca or Spacemen 3 with the plaintive, revving synths on standout "Just The Way I Like You," produced by Ritz Reynolds. Laden with improvised guitar by Dominic Angelella and a bric-a-brac beat, the track is pure, uncut Tinashe, with the demo-like quality of her gorgeous vocals lending further to the off-the-beaten-path appeal.—Alexander Iadarola
Earl Sweatshirt is not happy with Sony for flubbing the marketing roll-out of his forthcoming new album, which is due out next week, on March 23rd. In addition to dealing with a label that has "too many cooks," though, the 21-year-old is struggling with darkness elsewhere in his life. On "Grief," the first single off of I Don't Like Shit, I Don't Go Outside, Earl is depressed, angry, anxious, lonely, and perhaps still sussing out life in the spotlight. Over a sparse, dark beat that mimics his quicksand emotions, he raps, Focus on my chatter, ain't as frantic as my thoughts/ Lately I've been panicking a lot/ Feeling like I'm stranded in a mob/ Scrambling for Xanax out the canister to pop. Feel you, Earl.—Rawiya Kameir
A decade ago, Ameriie (then with one "i") kicked the door open with the gum-snapping "1 Thing," a heater of a song bolstered by production mastermind Rich Harrison's genius flip of a Meters sample. Harrison's known for weird, wily productions, so naturally his work here takes another left turn, swapping percussive aggression for bombed-out textures and hollow tones that darkly compliment Ameriie's commanding register. Glad to have these two back in the saddle together again.—Larry Fitzmaurice
Photo: Bryan Bedder / Getty Images
James Murphy is doing a lot of things these days—making coffee, taking cruise trips, DJing, more DJing. Occasionally, he makes music too, and more often than not, it's been music for Noah Baumbach films that aren't called Frances Ha. This cut from the soundtrack to Baumbach's While We're Young certainly sounds like soundtrack work; it's wordless and barely bubbling-over, the type of thing that could nicely score the type of sublime angst a certain 27-year-old writer is experiencing while writing this here blurb. And it's all the more gorgeous for it—a floaty web of synths eliciting nostalgia and awe, just like the best of Murphy's past work.—Larry Fitzmaurice
Nicki Minaj's "Truffle Butter" was a perfect song. There was Drake, there was Lil Wayne, there was that Maya Jane Coles house sample, and really not much else we could ask for. Le1f could certainly said to have big shoes to fill with his own interpolation of the track, but he rips the song apart and makes it his own, eviscerating all the homophobic haters and just about anybody who's ever doubted him, one punchline at a time. There's a lot: homage to Azealia Banks, a Mercy sample, and several new #hashtags. And while Le1f is in the running for XXL's Freshmen Class, I'd suggest he's already graduated.—Killian Wright-Jackson
I was really excited to interview Copenhagen producer Why Be for my recent piece on mash-ups, partly because of how completely his music evades explanation. It sounds like the lowest quality mp3 rip of an anonymous remix, bootlegged scrappily and downloaded via Limewire, and yet it comes across so undeniably powerfully. His new Tink edit, featuring her take on Migos' "Versace" and interspliced with bits by DJ Double M and DJ Delish, is as good an example of this as any: plug it in and go super saiyan.—Alexander Iadarola
I loved Raider Klan-affiliated rapper Amber London's 2013 mixtape True 2 Tha Phonk, so it's great to see her releasing new music. For "Queen of the UnderWorld," she hops on a gloomy, baroque-sounding beat by self-proclaimed "Garageband King" DJ Lucas, applying her fluent ' '90s Southern flow to typically occult ends: I am not your average girl/ They call me the Queen of the UnderWorld.—Alexander Iadarola
As head of Rinse FM, Geeneus is already quite the tastemaker—and if this B-side to his forthcoming single is any indication, he's a force behind the boards, too. "Red Velvet" is ineffably perfect house music, a crisp 4/4 serving as a backbone for silvery synth arpeggios while a few stray tech-y noises pass by like detritus in space. Throw it in the middle of your next DJ set—or, better yet, just grab a pair of headphones play it loud right now.—Larry Fitzmaurice
R&B seems to be championing noncommittal hookups and casual sex a lot these days. On "In Her Lane," Kirko Bangz and Ty Dolla $ign help carry the torch, sounding effusively thankful for ladies that won't catch feelings or snoop through their unlocked cellphones for incriminating dirt. While I've never been one for iPhone espionage, I do fall in love and/or like relatively easy and pretty hardcore. I'm an emotional woman who enjoys spooning and is prone to being clingy. They're clearly not singing about me, but, for some odd reason, I really like this syrupy track. At the very least, it's full of sound dating advice—namely that making money is more important than love and that it's a good idea to not let these dudes get too close—even if I'll probably never heed any of it, anyway. — Deidre Dyer