Photo by blocks on Unsplash
By Miles De Rosa, Staff Writer
It isn’t easy to impress The Alchemist, nor should it be. Over the last 30 years, the sampling wizard has made beats for hip-hop giants Nas, Ghostface Killah, Big Pun, Eminem, Prodigy and, most recently, Freddie Gibbs—collecting a couple Grammy nominations along the way.
His latest joint project, “Haram,” features the critically lauded underground rap duo Armand Hammer. The challenging duo sell few records outside of their small cult following and may be Alchemist’s lowest profile collaborators yet. But you wouldn’t know it by the way he talks about them.
“If you know Armand Hammer, they’re your favorite,” The Alchemist said in a recent interview with the Washington Post.
Armand Hammer, comprised of two New York rap artists, Billy Woods and Elucid, has been toiling in obscurity for nearly a decade now. In the past, their music has been extremely dense, populated by off-kilter, industrial beats and visceral lyricism that blends together striking imagery and heady philosophical ponderings. It is no surprise they haven’t caught on commercially, despite their earth-shattering lyrical abilities.
“Haram” has the potential to change all of that. The Alchemist has provided the duo with the brightest, most soulful and expansive set of instrumentals that they’ve ever worked with. These more minimal musical packages give the songs more solid thematic ground to stand on than the frenetic, ever changing beats of the past—and, as a result, the album feels like it has more direction as a whole than much of their previous work.
Even the darker beats are much more rhythmically straightforward than what the duo have previously rapped over. The Alchemist excels at distilling experimental concepts into approachable rhythmic contexts, and he has accomplished that in a major way with “Haram.”
The first song, “Sir Benni Miles” is a prime example of this. Featuring dark keys and a deep bass that swings back and forth like a heavy pendulum, punctuated every few revolutions by a chopped up vocal sample, the beat is intoxicating. It lulls you into its steady rhythm before Woods comes on, his flow sounding tighter and more connected to the pocket than it ever has before.
The third track, “Black Sunlight,” features a soulful, airy loop and guest vocals from KAYANA on the hook. Billy Woods delivers one of the best verses of the album, rapping, “Iridescent blackness/Is this performative or praxis? /We talkin about practice?” in the heart of the first verse. The second verse sees Elucid experimenting with a more melodic delivery, which is outside of his typical comfort zone, and something that comes back on the final song “Stonefruit.”
The fact that this album feels so much more approachable is due in large part to the subtly layered, loop-based production. This album is also much more uplifting than the duo’s previous work as well, due again to the shift of tone in the instrumentals.
This stripped-back production does have its downside though as some tracks feel like they lack momentum entirely. “Wishing Bad” is the worst offender in this case, a simple beat comprised of mostly deep bass hits and an even hi-hat. Though there are some wandering horn and vocal passages clipped in, this song feels like it goes nowhere.
Along with the more approachable production, many of these songs are easier to break into lyrically as well. The duo’s flows are still as meandering as ever, and on the whole, this album never quite puts both feet into the accessibility camp, but there are moments when they are opting more for straightforward, imagery laden storytelling.
The albums strongest two songs, “Falling out the Sky,” and the aforementioned “Stonefruit,” feature more approachable lyrics laid down over bittersweet instrumentals. “Falling out the Sky” features a standout verse from guest Earl Sweatshirt where he discusses his grief for his late father, rapping, “My father’s body swollen behind my eyes/I ain’t cry for him in time to return solar.” The second verse sees Billy Woods telling a story of waking up in a new place for the first time and finding yourself disorientated.
“Stonefruit,” the albums triumphant closing track, is this album’s biggest accomplishment and Armand Hammer’s largest stylistic leap forward. Elucid croons an opening chorus over a buttery, cathartic beat, singing “I don’t wanna lose control but/I can’t cramp my space to grow/Comforts dull but gets us through/I got so much left to undo.”
It is a powerful song of growth and overcoming and perhaps the most life affirming track in their catalogue to date. On the second verse, Woods raps about a love lost, closing the verse with, “She dragged the bones home and built a bed/She drank rosé out the skull, but held it gentle as my living head.”
This project is excitingly expansive and more emotive than anything the illusive pair has produced in the past. It will be interesting to see if this change in tone carries over to their future releases, or if the group will return to their typically busy, percussion-heavy sound. Either way, this is a landmark album for two of the most underappreciated rappers today.
