J.I.D., DiCaprio 2

[Dreamville, November 26]

J.I.D.’s The Never Story was a sleeper success last year, on which an unheralded member of J. Cole’s Dreamville crew quietly released an album full of sinuously structured mic workouts. The new DiCaprio 2 (a sequel to a 2016 EP) is a huge step forward in probably every way. He’s a dazzling emcee—quick and quiet, sometimes slow and easy, over opulent beats that seem more interested in creating a mood than a radio single. The drums slap, when they decide to hit; it’s not so much a rebuttal of the prevailing Atlanta sound as it is a missing aesthetic link between Zaytoven and The Dungeon Family. J.I.D.’s timbre and diction make him a dead ringer for Kendrick, but he lacks that rapper’s self-consciousness and weighty ambition—which is weirdly refreshing, in practice. DiCaprio 2 is the sound of a uniquely capable rapper going the fuck off. [Clayton Purdom]

Karen O & Danger Mouse, “Lux Prima”

[BMG, November 16]

For almost the first 90 seconds of its nine-minute running time, “Lux Prima” is little more than a simple synth pattern with some ambient background swells, like a Philip Glass melody refashioned for a children’s piano lesson. But then the drums enter—a laid-back, jazzy rhythm, and suddenly those synths sound a lot more like the soundtrack to a swoony ’70s arthouse film. And that’s just the first third; the song proper starts again at the three-minute mark. With Karen O’s smoky vocals, a stuttering drum pattern, and girl-group backing sounds, the singer and her collaborator Danger Mouse have created a cool and alluring track of retro-soul grooves. As my colleague Erik Adams approvingly put it regarding the producer’s instrumentation, “Up to his old Morricone tricks again, I see.” That’s a fitting assessment of this song, easily one of the best things Danger Mouse has done in the past half-decade. God willing, the rest of the upcoming joint album is this good. [Alex McLevy]

 
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