For anyone whoâs been feeling suffocated by the sameness thatâs been afflicting hip-hop and popâwhere a small handful of ideas gets recycled endlessly, and a spin through the big new-release playlists quickly devolves into a blurâThey Hate Changeâs Jagjaguwar debut, Finally, New lives up to its name. Finally, a record that can satisfy the geeky headphone trainspotters and the hedonistic ass-shakers, too. Finally, producers who refuse to settle for making drag-and-drop beats. Finally, rappers who arenât afraid of actually sticking out from the crowd and saying something new, and who embody the classic quote from Run of Run-DMC that, âThe only thing rap music isâthere is no music to rap. We just rap over whatever we want.â
âWe try to brainstorm and figure out together like, how were they doing this, and repurpose it into something new,â Dre says. âMessing around with samplers gave us a new appreciation for some of those old records, whether itâs jungle records, or grime or even footwork tracks. It was like trying to figure out, how can we manipulate them and make something new?â
The albumâs lead single, âFrom the Floorâ shows off Vonne and Dreâs talents to organically connect disparate influences, fusing icy UK drum & bass breaks with Miami bass bounce, layering on Dirty-South-mixtape-style raps, and dousing the whole thing in spacy psychedelia worthy of Can. âBlatant Localismâ spotlights the pairâs verbal teamwork, as they trade lines taking aim at style-deficient hypebeast rappers over a pixelated beat, landing on something like turn-of-the-millennium IDM, but with a lot more shit talk. The coolly frenetic âX-Ray Spexâ infuses jungle with propulsive synthesizer ambience. And theyâre as daring with their lyrics as they are with their beats: on âLittle Brother,â Dre draws an emotionally complex portrait of the hood economics other rappers shallowly glamorize, while âSome Days I Hate My Voiceâ is Vonneâs speaker-knocking ode to androgynous gender euphoria, complete with shout-outs to 100 gecs and 60âs trans soul star Jackie Shane.
âWith this album, Vonne says, âit's really like, okay, you know how you talk about the internet breaking down borders? Here's what that actually sounds like. It's not just a hip-hop record with a couple more weird sounds. You want homegrown DIY? This is a record that was written, produced, and recorded in a 150-square-foot bedroom from the least cool city you could think of.â
Finally, New is what a truly post-genre musical landscape is supposed to be: building deep connections that transcend outdated distinctions between them, spilling over with the joy of exploration and possibility, and daring other artists to think broader, go deeper, take bigger risks.
Let the rest of them keep playing by the old rulesâThey Hate Change will keep changing the game.
supported by 82 fans who also own âFinally, Newâ
Just the kind of gentle soundtrack I need when I am doing simple repetitive manual tasks. Impossible to decide on a favourite track because they are all wonderful. Jeremy Cherfas