by Chanell Noise (@igetsalty)
Kill Em All is so cold, seriously this album got me back into my car. I didn’t go anywhere of course (staying home and flattening the curve and all of that). I certainly bumped “Appollon’s Wheels” as loud as I could in my driveway, though. The beats are loops of mayhem; just grandiose symphonies of rhythmic and aerial loops. The raps are of course full of witty ass punchlines. Every bar is effortless, yet given in a cadence that sounds so raw. So freestyle or cypher-like.
Kill Em All is yet another collaborative-project from the pair of DJ Muggs and Mach-Hommy. If you remember, the duo released Tuex-Les Tous in March of 2019. Kill Em All was the summer ‘19 follow-up held down with the unique single “Force Majeure.” I love the beat. It's whimsical and layered with upbeat braggadocio raps. It's so easy. It’s effortless bars “foot up in your ass like some toilet tissue” layered over classic nods/ad-libs/samples to NYC hip hop. The homage is there but more importantly, the creativity is there.
For example, “The Omni,” a song that follows “Force Majeure,” has a more melancholy vibe. I can’t stress enough how diverse and melodic Kill Em All is. There is a sense of lackadaisical rhyming- ‘oh I’m just making music with my buds’. There is also this bar for bar respect for the craft that is rhyming. The traditional song and rap structures are built into verses and hooks on these projects then dismantled.
Classic New York. Make the rules then break them. Neither artist is a newbie to the game so this complete sonic gift is to be appreciated. For a refresher, DJ Muggs is a hip hop architect and OG from Cypress Hill. Mach-Hommy is the lyrical heavy-hitter spawning a pattern or wave of appreciation for the traditional technique of rhyming.
From crazy features giving us “I got dreams of fucking an R&B bitch,” to production choices that distort auditory reality (thanks Muggs) to ad-libs transporting you into an endless black hole of rap history, this project has it all.
The biggest moment I love to relive is hearing “Anaconda” in Spanish towards the end. Shout out Sick Jacken. I like to think we loved this EP so much because its focal point was the range of where hip hop has been, where it is and where it can go is amazing. There weren't any empty tricks, ill-fitting clout features nor GMO bars.