Smokingskul and Rx Papi. Photo by Joe Chong.
The FADER’s “Songs You Need” are the tracks we can’t stop playing. Check back every day for new music and follow along on our Spotify playlist.
Smokingskul, a rapper out of North Florida, specializes in a confounding sort of mayhem. My favorite song of his is “Jenga,” a track from his September project Nat Cap. Delivering witty bars in the breathless fashion found in plugg music, he’s both approachable and vicious, like he’s cracking jokes in the middle of a fight he’s winning; he’s backed by TDF’s beat, a rowdy cut of chaos with a lead melody delivered a patch that I can only describe as “pitbull growls run through a Vocaloid.” Smokingskul revisits that instrumental on “Kapow,” a song from Pack a Punch, his collaborative EP with Rx Papi. But the opening track “Bad Mojo,” a photo negative of “Jenga” in some respects, ends up stealing the show.
There’s a more textured feeling to “Bad Mojo.” Smokingskul once again loads up a full clip of humor and violence and sprays recklessly: “No hoodies in here, we knocking his cap off,” he raps, “All of these magazines but I don’t jack off / Bitch, my name Smoke, I ain’t Dream, can’t take this mask off.” The influence of Papi is clear even before the rapper delivers a verse that’s only weary in its tolerance for other people. “I stand on business, I’m not like y’all / Switch on the glick, get off my yard / My head round, I’m like Lebron.” The beats concussed, delayed synth melodies and booming plugg drum programming keep both rappers’ feet on the gas pedal in their verses; you’re not quite sure where they’ll go next, and that’s half the fun.
