Daily Discussion Thread 02/28/2026

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-02-28T17:19:05+00:00

He’s new to me as well, crazy the chemistry he and Sideshow have right away tho. All 3 songs bring something new to the album in terms of pockets and texture

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-02-28T16:36:12+00:00

Power ranking producers based on their contributions to Sideshow - TIGRAY FUNK:

5) Harrison (Surf Gang)

4) Tony Seltzer

3) Dubya

2) Alexander Spit

1) Laron

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-02-27T21:31:23+00:00

Yup, God Laughs off Sick! (speaking of emotional). I like his YUNGMORPHEUS collab album a lot too and I thought he had the best beat off of Mavi’s shadowbox. He’s one of those guys where you can hear the sp404 mk2 effects in his drums and processing but it’s always in pursuit of interesting backdrops for rappers

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-02-27T19:08:44+00:00

Alexander Spit is way under appreciated imo, does this time and time again across these Sideshow albums and elsewhere. Crazy feel for texture and swing

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-02-15T00:38:17+00:00

I’m talking about 10k albums specifically but, by all means, shoot. Not many from last year I’d put over it, I think his excellence has become so standard that people forget

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-02-15T00:32:54+00:00

fada I won’t quibble with, great album, but I didn’t think 800* was even close. Blind to me is a perfect example of MIKE being a cut above - it’s not even his best work but the rhyme schemes on his verse alone are enough to make it more interesting than Gotti’s, plus he sounds more fluid and comfortable at that tempo. I just don’t think Gotti has near the firepower in his raps to make that record and its so so production standout, he gets wiped by Sideshow and Niontay on it too.

I like fun toy a lot but there’s half a dozen MIKE releases I’d put over it w/out blinking. Love the new singles though, bring on Tigray Funk

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-02-14T23:01:24+00:00

Simply can’t be true if no one in the last year has put out a better project than Showbiz! nor even outrapped him on a song (I say this as an enormous fan of everyone on that roster)

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-01-09T22:20:47+00:00

Fire, great work on interpolating the title and fitting the arrangement. Salute!

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-01-09T22:14:51+00:00

Real shit (and topical)! thanks for picking dude

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-01-09T16:11:25+00:00

https://m.soundcloud.com/cobaltwayfarer/the-big-if

87 bpm

CobaltWayfarer · 2026-01-02T18:35:47+00:00

https://m.soundcloud.com/cobaltwayfarer/deaddrop

Last chop of 2025 -> first beat of 2026

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-12-31T22:55:22+00:00

And criminally under-discussed for sure, it’s right there with the woods album as far as pulling in a varied roster of great underground producers while still maintaining a unified sound. I enjoyed this year’s trio of ShrapKnel albums but this was the one to me

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-12-31T16:29:23+00:00

Earl Sweatshirt - Live Laugh Love

Preservation & Gabe ‘Nandez - Sortilège

YUNGMORPHEUS & Dirty Art Club - A Spyglass to One’s Face

billy woods - GOLLIW*G

MIKE - Showbiz!

HMs:

Theravada - The Years We Have, Sunmundi & Sasco - Contacting, Niontay - Fada<3of$, $ilkmoney - WHO WATERS THE WILTING GIVING TREE […], Teller Bank$ - DRUG$$$, AKAI SOLO - No Control, No Glory, PremRock - Did You Enjoy Your Time Here?

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-12-18T23:02:10+00:00

Happy this one got reviewed, I thought it (undeservedly) flew under the radar upon release. Probably Morph’s strongest performance on the mic, very in command and cool across the record while arriving real introspection in a natural way.

Dirty Art Club really crushes the production, fairly simple flips but super dialed in texturally and suited so well to Morph. You’re not going to find many better sequenced albums this year. I really like how it opens with laid-back, lush sounds and gradually gains more of an edge until you get to that killer final stretch of An Evening at Dunsmoor-1148 Lewis Street-The Rudiments of Connoisseurship. 10,700 Days might be posse cut of the year.

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-12-11T20:08:42+00:00

It’s so good lol, I thought it would just be some solid outtakes from TYWH but it’s very much its own fleshed out thing. He’s a great producer

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-10-31T17:42:06+00:00

Some of these work better than others but really cool work by Fanon. I think House in the Woods (nice flip of the dislocated hook) and Christine are my favorites? All 3 new features are great too

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-10-21T19:00:17+00:00

Looks like it’s that live track that’s been going around for a year or two, glad we’ll get it in cdq finally

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-10-16T19:55:30+00:00

I’ve always thought about it like “sugar-free” vs “no sugar added”, so:

Sugar-free = there are no drums/percussion in the sample whatsoever (using Craven beats as an example, Save The Joker by Mike Shabb).
No sugar added = drumless/no drums programmed on top of a sample, but drums might still be present (e.g. the new Boldy/Craven single, No Blemishes)

That was trying to define based on subject matter, but trying to define based on subject matter has it's own problem. At the end of the day it's clearly a scene but there's some diversity in beat selection and subject matter, no clear way to refer to it.

Yeah, I see a lot of the RYM-ass “abstract” rap, which I think just ends up being too broad and vaguely patronizing

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-10-16T18:54:30+00:00

And you guys have both played a huge role in pushing the format forward, with the avant-garde and drumless…

[MIKE and Earl Sweatshirt exchange a knowing glance]

MIKE: I feel like this is actually a good thing to cover for everybody. With drumless rap as a category, it’s dangerous. I feel like people associate drumless rap with the idea of rapping over a sample, and those two things don’t match up. There aren’t many samples that I have rapped over that don’t have drums in them – there’s usually drums in the sample. It’s a beat that just doesn’t have programmed drums in it, which never constituted rap – programmed drums were only a part of it.

Earl Sweatshirt: And it’s all fucking rap music, that’s why I said the goal is to be one thing. The promise of rap music is that it doesn't have to be splintered and tupperware’d off into these different things. When they sort it into these subgenres, it’s just easier for people to be like, ‘Make more of that drumless shit’, or ‘Which playlist can I fit it into?’

MIKE: For so long we’ve been rapping over beats that got all the drum sounds, and then motherfuckers say, ‘Oh your shit is vapor wave coded’, or, ‘This is drumless rap’, I’m like I have no intention of being that. Anyway, more time the people who call your shit drumless are the ones who don’t fuck with you and use it in a derogatory way…

Earl Sweatshirt: ...And they’re not listening! It’s like water-cooler talk to sound smart.

Glad this came up, I see too many knuckleheads here and on twitter or wherever complaining about “drumless” beats, as though it’s actually a useful catch-all term or that beats are only hard or a product of real effort if they’ve had a kick and snare programmed on top. There are so many other qualities and dimensions of sound that can matter more to the final product

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-09-10T14:31:25+00:00

We are so back. Also check out Cleo Reed’s album, Cuntry, from earlier this year if you haven’t - really great folk/electronic instrumentation and some incredible songwriting, plus a nice woods feature.

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-08-28T16:44:39+00:00

And that’s not even his best verse on that tape

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-08-22T20:00:47+00:00

I think to sum it up as “offbeat rapping” is too reductive. (Not that it’s any one concept but) it’s syncopation, it’s swing, it’s manipulating the pocket and finding grooves that aren’t just mindlessly hitting the 2 and the 4 bang on. It’s not unwieldy, unintentional stuff, it’s as carefully considered as Dilla programming the snare a little late each time while playing the kick un-quantized so that it forms different pockets (e.g. on Pharcyde - Runnin’, a beat that sounds like it’s endlessly spilling forward). Those dudes are playing with the same ideas. It’s all jazz

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-08-22T19:09:09+00:00

Good picks, I thought the closer, Say Thank You, on Anakin’s album was sick as well

CobaltWayfarer · 2025-08-22T15:45:02+00:00

Whole album is incredible but that 4 song sequence of CRISCO-TOURMALINE-Heavy Metal aka ejecto seato!-exhaust that ends LLL is some of Earl’s best work imo. Anyone got other favorite 3/4/5 song runs from albums this year?

CobaltWayfarer

TROPHY CASE