Underground Rap Wouldn’t Be the Same Without Black Kray

Screenshot of Black Kray in the music video for “Slayin,” directed by Bobby Astro. Image by Chris Panicker.

Pitchfork writer Alphonse Pierre’s rap column covers songs, mixtapes, albums, Instagram freestyles, memes, weird tweets, fashion trends—and anything else that catches his attention.

Wait. Is this Black Kray’s Eras Tour? That’s the kind of dumb, fleeting thought I had halfway through the Goth Money Records head honcho’s recent set at Manhattan’s Gramercy Theatre, watching as the enigmatic Virginia native breezed through more than a decade of his stylish, nostalgic emo rap. Standing on stage in all black, except for the kind of studded belt you can find on the racks at Hot Topic, next to a cardboard cross that stood about six feet tall and read “When Doves Kry,” he hardly said any words to the crowd—a mix of high schoolers who probably found him through collabs with Swedish cult icon Bladee and mid-to-late-twentysomethings (myself) who have been immersed in the Kray mythology since their teens—that weren’t in the form of the grumbles and the ghostly whispers of his raps.

Most of the kids, who wore baggy black pants with too many zippers, like it was the agreed-upon uniform, moshpitted, as Black Kray surfed from 2014 Raider Klan-influenced essentials like “Princess Cuts Mah Wrist” to ominous-sounding jerk with this year’s “Spin da Block Lyke ah Fan,” that recalls a Xaviersobased mixtape. (On Xavier’s Keep It Goin Xav, one of the rap projects of the year so far, the 20-year-old mentions that he’s rocking Goth Money merch.) Behind him a somewhat strange slideshow was projected, with images of Osama Bin Laden and child soldiers (Goth Money always had a bizarre Juelz Santana–like infatuation with the Taliban) underneath No Limit–style army tanks and the Goth Money logo, an homage to Cash Money Records’ trademark badge. He has so many songs that the crowd was able to rap along only sometimes. I just stood silently, rocking my head, taking it all in.

It was the first time I had ever seen Black Kray live. One time, when I was 18, I was supposed to see him in Brooklyn, but my friend bailed, so I just didn’t go. I’ve always regretted it. Goth Money Records, a collective formed in 2013 was formative for me. Their gunshot-riddled 2014 mixtape Goth Money Tech Palms 2005 grew my love for moody yet lush, noisy, underground rap. I still love it, and I never imagined I would still be listening to Black Kray all these years later.

Most of Kray’s music isn’t on Spotify or Apple Music, which could be why Goth Money doesn’t have the commanding internet presence of Bladee and his Drain Gang, even if Kray is way cooler. Still, it could just be because Kray is a fucking oddball. He’s also private: I don’t know much about him that I didn’t find out from his mixtapes, an often dreamy blur of raps about being depressed and drugs and artsy girls and goth girls.

Not all of it works, and I’m partial to the older stuff, but most of the tapes, which you can find on Bandcamp, are worthwhile. So many different influences are converging—the cloudiness of Clams Casino–era Lil B, the low-budget dustiness of early Three 6 Mafia, the dark majesticness of Chief Keef, the rebellious edginess of Salem—to the point that they’re nearly unrecognizable. My favorite mixtape might be 2014’s 700 Dagreez because it has a few of the best songs he’s ever made: “Stevie J and Joseline,” which is interspersed with clips from Love & Hip-Hop, and “Lil Kim,” so hazy it might give you a contact high.

The project also highlights his sharp ear for thudding, magical-sounding beats. Scan through his catalog from the start, the producer credits feel like a history lesson in underground rap of the last decade; from Chicago drill discovery DJ Kenn to Gothboiclique’s Horse Head to Lil Peep go-to Nedarb to NYC’s Surf Gang to Working on Dying’s F1lthy. Either that will blow your mind or make you immediately go, Oh yeah, that shit is not for me.

But that’s the point. Music that isn’t for everybody and that doesn’t want to be for everybody, music that operates as if everything outside of its bubble doesn’t matter, is cool. That’s who Black Kray and Goth Money have been for 10 years, and I can’t see that changing anytime soon. I thought about it as Black Kray did a few Milwaukee dances onstage, and I looked around at the mesmerized crowd (except for two kids doing Tech Deck tricks on the bar). Without even speaking to them, I knew that they were also going through their own personal history and memories with the music of a certified, underground giant.

Milwaukee’s SteveDaStoner Will Perform Absolutely Anywhere

At a Walmart, a Walgreens, a Ross Dress for Less. Inside of hot restaurants, in front of national landmarks (yes, Rick Ross’ mansion is a national landmark), on top of a horse at a ranch. These are just a few of the locations where Milwaukee rapper SteveDaStoner—famed for the pindrop dance he hit in the music video for 2018’s “2 Busy”—has taken his free concert series; pop-up performances to push his new single “RWS (Really Wack Shit),” a high-voltage Milwaukee slap record. The barely-a-minute videos are hilarious every time they appear on my TikTok or Instagram feeds and have done their job of making me memorize the banger opening bars: “Really wack shit/Two glocks make ’em do a backflip.”

Every video begins the same way: Steve storming into an establishment that clearly wasn’t expecting him, with a mic and massive Bluetooth speaker strapped to his body like a handbag. In his tracksuits and Jimmy Jazz–core outfits, he’s always deadly serious, rarely cracking a smile, as workers and shoppers sometimes stare in confusion, sometimes open their phones to record (or maybe call the cops), and sometimes dance along. Eric Andre Show heads may appreciate the public awkwardness.

My favorite videos are the ones where civilians do more than just gawk. At his free concert at a Wingstop, a worker teleports from the kitchen to the cash register, so he can dap Steve up and swing his dreads like he’s in a 2012 Chief Keef video. At popular, trendy eatery Elsa’s in Milwaukee, Steve pulls up on a fairly crowded day and everyone in the spot is caught off guard, but vibing, except for one waiter who tries to block the camera. The greatest of them all may be his free concert on the campus of the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee where students gather around him and rap every word. It’s such a clever series that I reached out to SteveDaStoner to try to get a couple of quotes, and he asked for $500 that I obviously did not pay. I guess only the concerts are free. Keep ’em coming.

CuzzosX5: “Pop Out”

Two specific moments turned me into a head of L.A. rap group Cuzzosx5. First it was their raunchy breakout single “Goochie Mayne”—in the tradition of YN Jay and Louie Ray’s “Coochie”—and the way they skewer the dudes in their DMs: “You niggas hoes/How the fuck you get a cut and now you outside with the bros?” Then it was the opening seconds of their video for “Young Wings,” where two members, Teawhyy and Milly Mo (the other three are BB, Jasscole, and Big I-N-D-O), argue about whether DayDay or Langston is the hottest guy in the Rangers, one of the central jerkin’ crews of the late 2000s and early 2010s. Not only is it a pretty funny scene, it stamps their music as L.A. shit through and through.

Their latest song “Pop Out” keeps the train rolling as four of the five (no Teawhyy) get their punchlines and brags in over a mellow West Coast beat that would fit a BlueBucksClan tape. My favorite verses are by Milly Mo, who has jokes for days, and Jasscole, because she has the gravitational pull of a rap star. It’s not their best song yet (my pick is “I H8 Home”) but it is a solid introduction to the next blustering rap crew.

Sidewaalk Kal: “Reflections”

A sharp pen and a good ear for beats is all you need. That’s what you get on Sidwaalk Kal’s brUUUuuuhHHHhhhh, 11 joints of tough-minded East Coast rhymes spiced up with a flow so buttery that if he ever dropped an 05 Fuck Em–length mixtape, I could down it no problem. One of the tape’s standouts is “Reflections,” where Brooklyn producer Hajino’s rainy-day head knocker sets the tone and Kal blacks out with the ease of a Tyshawn Jones kickflip: “Scratchin’ on the noggin and plottin’ deep on the cash moves/’Cause cash rules, this world nutty everyday cashews.” I’m going to play this one into the dirt.

Pablo Skywalkin: “Why You Kiss”

For over a decade Pablo Skywalkin’s cracked voice and offbeat flow has made him one of the oddballs of Detroit’s street rap scene. But these days I have no idea what’s going on with him. He’s ditched the True Religion Canadian tuxedo he sported in early videos like “Flex on Em” and now rocks wool sweaters and oversized spectacles that make him look like Norbit. No idea why, but he seems to be having a good time in the video for “Why You Kiss,” terrorizing a commercial bookstore by doing a wacky two-step in the aisles. The song is pretty silly too—it’s off his recent mixtape where he raps a bunch of nonsense on handclap-centric Certified Trapper type beats. I’m especially into “Why You Kiss” because the lyrics have him railing against the dating choices of the girl he’s trying to hit on, and the hook goes, “Bitch, why you kiss that broke nigga on his lips.” Too bad Pablo doesn’t do a great job of explaining what she should find so desirable about him, but I suppose somewhere, somehow, Mr. Rogers-core makes you a catch.

Rest in Peace, Dallas Penn

Dallas Penn, the legendary rap and culture blogger, co-host of The Combat Jack Show, and New Yorker, died last week. He wrote the sort of city-specific, unfiltered, funny yet knowledgeable pieces that I go back to every time I feel lost in the sauce of working within the system. It’s depressing how many pillars and contributors of hip-hop culture we continue to lose. There will never be another Dallas Penn.

Originally Appeared on Pitchfork