SKI MASK THE SLUMP GOD-11TH DIMENSION

The much-anticipated official sophomore full-length from Floridian rapper Ski Mask the Slump God has finally arrived, delivering a kaleidoscopic vision of dark trap-adjacent tracks that reach out tentacle-like across the modern rap landscape and beyond. There’s "Headrush" with a kind of "Crazy Train"-sounding riff in it, the heavily distorted trap beat of "Hulk," the unique, house fly buzz beat of "Tuk Tuk," the beat on "KillStreak" that sounds like a Nintendo console gone homicidal, and The Weeknd-like "Go!" featuring Corbin.

"DragonTooth" leads us off with a beat that sounds like the electronics in Bring Me the Horizon’s "Dear Diary," and I had to laugh at the SEGA line that reminded me of House of Pain’s "Jump Around." In addition to the scope of the music, Ski Mask exhibits impressive flow and versatility throughout, with a bunch of great lines—some of them hilarious one-liners—on here, too. Songs like "Wake Up!" featuring Juice WRLD and "Earwax" find Ski Mask spitting serious fire. With hardcore band brevity—only two of the twenty-one tracks even hit three minutes, and barely at that when they do—Ski Mask the Slump God rips through high energy bangers like "Full Moon" or the dripping with menace "Part the Sea" in a pretty short drive from there to a full-on mosh pit, and yet he proves he can throttle it back where necessary, too, such as on the first verse of the chilled-out ballad "WDYM," or, in moves which really evidence his talent and versatility, in showcasing his strong singing voice on that track and "Go!"—two of the best cuts on the record.

Overall, this is my favorite rap album to come out so far this year, and as Ski Mask says in "Shibuya": "Let it bang!"