The Rap Report: Damjonboi returns, zee! gets furious, and more

The story behind the title of Damjonboi’s new tape Ok I Lied 2 is simple enough to fit into two bars. “Said Super Saiyan 3 was my last tape / I was bullshitting tryna make a bag shake,” he admits on “Olympians.” Rap retirements are like fake doctor’s notes, after all — you can just show up at work the next day like nothing happened and it’ll be alright. On mid-tape highlight “Top Shelf,” the Detroit rapper and producer gets right back to the bullshit. He’s shooting guns until they overheat and melt, listening to his own music in the club, and bewildered by the quality of diamonds that people are putting in their jewelry. “I might drop a tape every month, bitch I’m back,” he raps. Even if it turns out not to be true, Damjonboi makes it sound more convincing than your average promise.

Even at its most irritated, zee!’s July project ##markmywords still managed to be upbeat and airy. For example, listen to “spark it out,” where his gloating becomes an sing-songy schoolyard taunt or “on shit,” where his flow is so bouncy you can imagine him bopping from side to side as he raps. But on his new bite-sized EP ##gotmypainback, the Dallas rapper sounds entirely pissed off. The wailing sirens of “stuck II” dart around like cats chasing after laser pointers, giving zee!’s already uneasy delivery a heightened sense of urgency. On “back off,” zee! distills his anger into something calmer and more precise. When he raps through the static, it feels like he’s trying to jump out of the screen and headbutt you. It’s simple, but it still sounds cool as hell.

I’d be lying if I called Hunchoz’s “drama.mp3” a love song—romantic would still be a stretch—but the Cleveland rapper was definitely had someone in mind when recording this. “She a very freaky girl, she get it from her mama / Don’t you say her name, ‘cause she gon ‘cause the drama,” he raps, giving Gucci’s bars a new twist. “She just told me she was hungry so I took her some McDonalds.” With its syrupy beat and dramatically crooned lyrics, “drama.mp3” feels like lounging on a waterbed — a little strange at first, but after a little while, you start to feel the vibe.

The punchlines on Babyfxce E’s “Broad Day” come flying at such a rapid pace you’ll feel like you ended up in a boxing gym. The song’s chest-caving bass might as well be someone’s blows echoing in off the walls. Compared to other Flint rappers who’ve popped in the last few years, Babyfxce E is younger and lyrically a notch more hard-nosed, but that doesn’t mean his music is all serious. Just before the one-minute mark, a female voice cuts in to say “I love you Face,” before he interrupts her with an frustrated “Bitch that’s what they all say.” A well-placed joke can relieve any amount of tension.

Whenever Show Dem Camp drop new projects, I end up diving into the discography of every all the featured artists I’m unfamiliar with. With Palmwine Music 3, allegedly the final entry in the trilogy, I’ve been stuck listening to the London-based Nigerian singer Bellah, who puts on an Oscar-winning performance on “Wyw.” When she sings “I don’t wish you nothing but pain, heartbreak,” her light voice transforms into an ice pick. (The “Wow…” adlib kills me). Ghost fires back in his verse though: “Just hold your L, I know it’s tough like the bluest denim / Do me I do you, God no go vex, True Religion.” “Wyw” carries the feelings of 2000s rapper-singer duet, where chemistry is just as important as blowing your mind with vocals or wordplay. It’s the kind of song I wish we had more of today.