Chronicles: Goth Money - Goth Money Trillionaires

If there is to be any overt or ulterior goal of bubbling-up rap crew Goth Money’s music, it’s a convoluted one; interviews of the six members frame their project as a form of positivity achieved through organic, artistic union, while the group’s material is most often somewhat a literal incarnation of their name. Either way, over the course of a few years, they’ve found themselves to be of particular interest in the rap underground even when the narrative of an eclectic, cultured, Internet-of-rap group garnering attention across the States and beyond might be an exhausted one.

Goth Money Trillionaires is the proper label debut from Goth Money; the young members of which have come to include Hunned Mill, MFK Marcy Mane, Black Kray, Kane Grocerys, Karmah, and Luckaleannn, all of whom come variably from LA, Richmond, Chicago or New York. The press release also indicates that this is the first outing for which all six members of the crew are accounted for, which is an overdue feat considering a back catalogue of dozens of mixtapes that finds the rag tag of rappers joining forces in varying numbers since the crew’s formation in 2013. But spend a day with their catalogue and you’ll realize Trillionaires is indeed an opus; an unabashed, refined iteration of what has made their rap as relatively hot as it is now: this dark, trap aesthetic framed as positive intent (there’s much talk about blue 100s, but as consequence of juggin’). Without much respect to the latter stylistic contradiction, the album still somehow fits comfortably among a short line of releases from producers Hot Sugar, James Ferraro, and Teengirl Fantasy on Break World Records, the label hopefully not nearly finished with hosting these types of projects.

For its sonics, Trillionaires culls from just about every underground rap subset heard from 2012 to the present, but the one underpinning facet of the album that has the best chance of drawing unanimous approve from listeners who portend to anyone from Raider Klan to Awful Records is its rough, basement-cut finish. Whether leaning toward brutal GBE trap (“Been That N****”, “Movie”) or effortlessly adopting the blunt-toting sing-along rap of Yung Simmie (“Brick Walk”) or anything in between (we liken Hunned Mill’s meandering drawl to that of Yung Gleesh) Goth Money’s sound has been marked by ear-piercing, scuffed 808s. It’s tough to attribute the production to anyone in particular as these productions go un-credited, but MFK Marcy Mane is most known to take the producer role out of the whole group. In no way a takeaway from what they’ve done here, each side of the board is cultured and inspired by someone or somewhere; a testament to the geographically dispersed group’s coming together. Among the album’s standouts is “Gucci Racks”, the opener that was cut ahead of the LP back in September. The beat is thumping and cerebral in equal measure (it would nestle perfectly somewhere in a mix from The-Drum or Supreme Cuts), and the catchiness of its hook is a precedent for the rest of the neck-snapping and finger-waving album.