Chicago upstart (how many times have we heard that since 2012?) Kit is something of an anomaly. At some point along the lengthy, recreating spectrum of hip-hop and R&B the Midwest provides us with year after year (and which enthusiasts avow to pick apart), Kit is situated at a very liminal position, owing his artistic direction to the likes of both Jeremih and King L at the same, unlikely time. Of course we haven’t heard enough from the rapper/R&B-dweller to say anything definitive up until now and without putting out practically any material preceding it, the genre-blurring rapper released his first body of work, the 11-track NewWavey, in July of last year. Comprised of tracks like “Lights On”, the tape’s foreboding opening sex vignette, “My Bad Bitch”, is a fly disregard for steady relationships and effectively features velvety smooth R&B group JODY. Then you have “Cloud On My Mind,” probably the most mind-affecting cut of the whole inebriating collection. The mixtape was a promising first time out for Kit that left listeners wondering how much more strung out the rapper could possibly sound during his next broadcast. Though he does shift from gun-toting to blunt-sparking to racy pillow-talking on a track to track basis the sound of his end product, like a strong cup of lean, remains simple whilst addicting. The common thread that ran through NewWavey was druggy heedlessness, with the production—exclusively done by Jeremiah Meece of The-Drum save for a few tracks—being more than an integral part of Kit’s woozy affect and probably more than half the reason one would revisit the tape, which isn’t nearly a bad thing considering the seeming rapport of the two local acts and how well Meece’s celestial beats worked with Kit’s fucked up lyric.
Stream: Kit – My Bad Bitch
With eyes still dilated from last year Kit, now beside the production aid of the Supreme Cuts duo (perhaps the next rung up on the experimental beat ladder with proximity to The-Drum), opens up his new album Lownt God Rising with “L.W.O.” The beat is booming and wide-screened, appropriately staying well away from the extravagance heard on the producers’ most recent LP, over which the self-proclaimed Lownt God raps disaffected as ever by the sober and simple happenings around him; “you know I ain’t got no manners bruh/ you lucky I even showed up to this shit/ just take a look at my wrist” he says in the first verse.
Stream: Kit- L.W.O. (1833)
It’s no wonder why Kit lifted “Touchdown” from Lownt God a few days before release to tease the album. The beat, one of two the rapper credits himself for alongside the featured makers, reminds us of the transporting capabilities of rap beats in a post-Clams Casino world and could easily rank among the best of the year; the three artists it seems doing their best to summon wraithlike vocal disembodiment while still shaking trunks. “Steve Kerr,” with its Bay Area bounce, will suit well basketball aficionados and hyphy/ratchet lovers alike. Finally, JODY constituent David Ashley, who sounds like a certain trap lord on this occasion, assists Kit on “Running Up Numbers,” a track that further displays the dynamism we all knew Supreme Cuts had, and bit of the same from Kit. Even in the context of increasing Chicago musical fertility, ‘unique’ is a description befitting of both the rapper/singer and production team, who present more hits than misses on one of the more anticipated collaborations the underground had to offer so far this year.
Stream: Kit – Touchdown
Lownt God Rising is available to purchase on iTunes or download here.
