Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches his attention.
Atlanta is still the best at using hip-hop as a backdrop
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The long-awaited, two-part return of Atlanta kicks off with a Milly Rock gone wrong. In a characteristically bold troll, the first episode barely features any of the show’s principal characters—only Donald Glover’s hapless rap manager Earn gets a brief “it was all a dream” shot at the very end—but it still maintains the striking mix of dark humor, hip-hop, and harrowing racial politics that the series has made its name on.
“Three Slaps” is a standalone nightmare focused on Laquarius, a young Black student who celebrates his teacher’s announcement that the class will be taking a field trip to see Black Panther 2 by acting a damn fool. He hits various viral dance-rap moves on top of his desk and up the aisles, while the other kids clap and chant along. After he’s sent to the principal’s office, his mom makes him dance through tears as she lectures him about “showing out for his white classmates.” Then his grandfather gives him three precise and measured slaps to the face. His white-savior guidance counselor witnesses this, calls child services, and Laquarius is soon living with a couple of white lesbian hippies who already have three nearly catatonic Black foster kids, a situation with real-life roots.
The episode’s narrative centers around a theme that Glover, the show’s creator, has explored in the past: The unintended consequences that occur when Black people lean on caricatures while performing for white audiences. In previous seasons, this theme has veered toward self-criticism, like when Earn thought it would be worth it for his rising rapper friend Paper Boi (Brian Tyree Henry) to work with Black Justin Bieber—a character and concept that interrogates whether the unruly pop star would be treated the same if he were Black.
Glover’s work has also used horror tropes to get to this point, like in the video for his Childish Gambino track “This Is America,” which ends with a group of mostly white dudes chasing him into the darkness. That video could be heavy-handed, and subsequently corny, and Atlanta isn’t always subtle either. Occasionally the premiere’s critiques are too on-the-nose, and its ripped-from-the-headlines structure is not as clever as they think it is, but the comedic elements go a long way in covering up these flaws. In one of the best scenes, the white couple make Laquarius do yard work in what looks like a mini crop field. One of his new foster parents prompts him to sing a song, and he animatedly starts to recite YoungBoy’s “Make No Sense.” She quickly cuts him off, suggesting a more traditional work song instead. It’s absurdly funny and unsettling at the same time, bringing to mind a less biting version of Jordan Peele’s Get Out.
The second part of the premiere really shines, as it returns us to the characters we know and love—along with Earn and Paper Boi, there’s Earn’s ex Vanessa (Zazie Beetz) and the crew’s tripped-out friend Darius (LaKeith Stanfield)—who are in Amsterdam, where Paper Boi is on tour. This time horror and hip-hop are blended to get at another issue the show has skewered in the past: blackface.
Paper Boi and Earn are in the Netherlands during the Christmastime celebration of Sinterklaas, when people wear blackface, curly wigs, and thick red lips to play a minstrel-like character named Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). At Paper Boi’s show, the white European crowd is entirely in blackface, so he storms out, and it’s up to Earn to tell the promoter the bad news. Suddenly, the second Paper Boi doesn’t play the game, the promoter’s friendly deposition—he is first seen chumming around with Earn and telling him how people in Amsterdam are so much more tolerant than Americans—is gone. He chases Earn through the venue’s halls, only to pummel a concert-goer in blackface. It’s a surreal, mixed-up, and violent take on performing for a white crowd obsessed with Black stereotypes.
But my favorite part of the episode is when Darius and Van stumble into a cult-like residence, where there’s a man on his deathbed. After glancing at the guy, Darius (who is extremely high) thinks it’s none other than Tupac Shakur. Of course, shit goes left. They witness a shocking suffocation of “Tupac” that brings to mind the Scandinavian-set horror hit Midsommar, capped off with a goofy sync of Pac’s eternal “Hail Mary.” The startling moment is fucked-up, and funny as hell. Black horror at its best, alongside a perfect soundtrack.
Remembering Goonew with four essential moments
Last week, the Maryland rapper Goonew was shot and killed. He was 24 years old. Since his emergence in 2017, he had become one of the signature rappers in the DMV area thanks to his ominous, whispery flow, which sounded like a ghost whooshing through haunted walls. It was fascinating to watch how his music changed over time, from his extremely raw back-and-forths with his frequent sparring partner Lil Dude to smoother cuts that still managed to be spine-chilling. Here are a few moments in his catalog to remember.
Goonew: “80’s”
Back in 2017, when I first heard Goonew’s “80’s” on the front half of “Shots Fired,” his breakout collab single with Lil Dude, it stopped me in my tracks. The way Goonew crept ahead and slithered through the minimalist Cheecho-produced instrumental was thrilling. I had never heard anything quite like it.
Lil Dude and Goonew: “Quick Draw”
“Quick Draw” is my favorite track from Lil Dude and Goonew’s debut joint tape Homicide Boyz. Goonew pushes the whispering to the extreme here, making you feel like you’re hearing a voice that may or may not actually be there.
Goonew always seemed to have a lot of fun on songs with fellow DMV rapper Lil Gray. They’re chemistry pops on 2018’s “Positive Goon” and really comes alive on the funky “Pimpin,” too.
Goonew: Back From Hell
As a solo artist, Goonew’s standout tape is 2019’s Back From Hell. The instrumentals are a departure from his go-to beatmaker Cheecho’s spare menace, as producers like Mannyvelli and Sparkheem splash some brightness into his nightmare. On “Moesha,” he flips the groovy Moesha theme into a horror show; “What It Was” sounds sweet until you pay attention to the lyrics; “Dance Party” is a swing. What a tape.
ZelooperZ: “2020” [ft. Apropos]
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ZelooperZ’s new tape Get WeT.Radio is dedicated to his father, and it sounds like the Bruiser Brigade rapper’s spin on the type of soulful records you’d hear on your local throwback R&B radio station. (One track even opens with a clip from Detroit’s V98.7 smooth-jazz channel.) Over a Dilip instrumental that punches up music that could be on a Kenny G record, ZelooperZ uses his murmuring flow to reminisce on relationship struggles and blurry hardships. My favorite part is Apropos’ slick hook, which has the feel of Mr. Serv-On’s sensitive goon choruses from late-’90s No Limit tapes.
EST Gee and 42 Dugg: “Free the Shiners”
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The problem with rap duos is that many of them aren’t really duos at all. Sometimes two rappers with similar sounds and themes get together to make a collaborative album, like Lil Durk and Lil Baby’s overwhelmingly bland The Voice of the Heroes—but I wouldn’t go as far as to consider them a duo. On its face, the recent partnership between EST Gee and 42 Dugg seems similarly businesslike: We all know that they’ve only joined together because they’re both under the umbrella of Yo Gotti’s red-hot CMG imprint. Nevertheless, the chemistry between the pint-sized Detroit storyteller and the Louisville-raised ex-linebacker is wildly right. On “Free the Shiners” it even sounds like they recorded their vocals in the same studio session: Dugg’s high-pitched chirps bounce off Gee’s menacing threats, one smoothly passing the baton to the other.
Headline of the week: “Pusha T Rides Out for Arby’s in New McDonald’s Diss Track”
At this point, the bar is so low for rappers shilling for fast food companies that Arby’s recruiting Pusha T to lay down a track dissing McDonald’s fish sandwich is only minorly insufferable. What’s next? Will Griselda get a White Castle deal and replace lyrics about slinging dope with slinging sliders? It all makes me never want to eat out ever again.
MarijuanaXO: “Tru Story”
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Milwaukee duo MarijuanaXO and Joe Pablo turned me into a full-on fan with the stressed-out drug dealing chronicles and odes to brotherly love that filled their Window Service mixtape from last year. Ever since, I’ve been checking YouTube regularly for signs of a follow-up, and last week I stumbled onto MarijuanaXO’s solo effort, Bok. It has nothing on their joint tape, but it’s good enough to hold me over in the meantime. “Tru Story” is a bright spot. The beat layers sputtering drums over synthesizers that might bring to mind George Benson’s jazzy R&B. Meanwhile, MarijuanaXO sounds heartbroken as he details a bitter fallout: “That’s the game, and I still love him to this day/But shit will never be the same, nigga tried to smear my name.”
