Rap Blog is a weekly showcase of a standout rap song written by Vivian Medithi and Nadine Smith.
The sticky pleasure of bars and clubs requires a certain degree of psychic stamina, but a truly great night out demands pure telepathy. Maybe that’s in the form of a friend who’s always down to hit one more spot until you’re ready to call it quits; perhaps more likely, a truly in-the-zone DJ playing banger after banger. Or, on a particularly good night with the lights down low, a semi-anonymous dance partner whose every bump and grind feels perfectly synced to your own.
“In the darkness, I / could read your mind,” Stout croons on “Mind Reader,” the jangling lead single off New Jersey rapper Cakes Da Killa’s forthcoming Black Sheep. Her earnest hook is a much-needed breather after frenetic verses, Cakes rapid-fire hopscotching across a shuffling house beat as he recalls fortuitous meetcutes on the dancefloor: “Femme top, get me hot / off your frequency / soul to soul, like we chatting over ESP.”
He isn’t too humble to show off the Schiaparelli and Vivienne Westwood in his closet, or acknowledge those tragically “tryna rock my old flows.” But Cakes’s self-possession — “never code switch, I shape shift” — is the real flex. He’s “bound to shine/no baguettes no karats,” ready to “show the girls how to eat in every season.”
Stout’s sinuous third verse is plaintive and pleading by comparison: “I'm used to feeling bad when I’m all alone / Lost in the scent of your cologne / It’s me and you till the lights come on.” It almost feels like a peek under Cakes’ brash exterior; after all, even the coolest guy in the club isn’t too cool for love.
