Review Summary: A decent hip hop EP which mixes themes of death and drug use liberally
New Orleans rap duo $uicideboy$ continue down their cloud rap/trap path with the release of the third EP in the KILL YOU$ELF series; the appropriately titled, KILL YOUR$ELF Part III - The Budd Dwyer $aga. As many might already know, Dwyer was a former American senator who famously committed suicide in front of a live audience. The macabre imagery of said event makes an adequate backdrop for these hip hop artists who have a fascination with all things grim.
Hailing from the south, the influences of the region are clear and prominent in the groups sound. DJ $crim provides heavy use of 808's along with chopping and screwing of many sections in their songs. $crim and Oddy Nuff trade several verses in each song adhering mostly to a verse, verse, chorus, verse, verse, chorus approach. While nowhere near world-beaters in terms of their flows' creativity or ingenuity they nonetheless get the job done. In actuality, they both sound similar and this leads to a sometimes monotonous sound while they trade verses. The flaw isn't that noticeable because they often process their voices like on opener, "100 Blunt$" where the effects almost come off as sounding auto-tuned. Whereas lyricists they might be dismissed as nothing special, what really makes this hip hop duo listenable is their beats. The beats are on point in most of the tracks and draw heavily from the ethereal sounds of cloud rap. The hi-hat use in "$moked Out, Loced Out" has trap written all over it, not only in the beat but also lyrically and by pitching down their voices.
The Kill You$elf series obviously centers itself around death, both in its image and lyrical content. The New Orleans rappers seem to be influenced by Horrorcore artists, while not to a degree that would classify their sound as Horrorcore but enough to be noted. The grizzly imagery of suicide and murder are often passed off as normal as in the song, "Heavily Medicated". The subject of suicide plays a huge part in their lyrics and if the song isn't about death you can be sure it is about drug use as the two themes are frequently mixed. The EP shows some promise but the lack of variety holds the record back. The tracks don't try and escape from their comfort zone and are quite short as well. The three bonus tracks save the album from being a complete failure though as there is a bit more experimentation in the sound and one track even features a guest vocalist, adding a bit of diversity and dimension to the song. Overall fans of Flatbush Zombies, Team Sesh or any of the cloud based bandcamp hip hop artists would enjoy this record.
