For a glorious and all-too-brief moment in the early ’00s, crunk music crossed over. Fearsome, gothic chant-based Southern fight-rap — music that had developed on the Memphis underground before spreading to cities like Atlanta and Miami — became actual straight-up pop music. It ruled. Crunk has never fully gone away; you can hear its influence in things like drill and SoundCloud-rap. And now an enterprising young man in Memphis is doing everything he can to bring back crunk in its full and undiluted glory. God bless him.

The Memphis 27-year-old rapper Duke Deuce grew up with crunk; his father is the Memphis rapper and producer Duke Nitty. Duke Deuce raps in a squeaky, yelpy voice that sound cool and eerie over the right beats, and he can also snarl hard when he has to. According to this XXL story, Duke Deuce got himself signed to Quality Control when Offset saw the dancer SheLovesMeechie performing to one of Duke Deuce’s songs. Last year, Duke Deuce’s anthemic “Crunk Ain’t Dead” became a viral hit. Since then, he’s recruited elder statesmen Lil Jon, Juicy J, and Project Pat for the “Crunk Ain’t Dead” remix. And yesterday, he released a tough-as-hell mixtape called Memphis Massacre 2.

Memphis Massacre 2, the sequel to a 2018 tape, isn’t all crunk revival. Duke Deuce can also do introspection and Auto-Tuned melody. But the whole tape has a thick, intense sound that calls back to old underground days in harder, more linear ways than the the SoundCloud rappers are doing. It’s fun, too. I love Duke Deuce’s “what the fuuuuuuck” ad-lib and his willingness to put Lil Yachty on a song called “Crunk Ain’t Dead Mob.” Below, stream Memphis Massacre 2 and check out the pretty great video for the “Crunk Ain’t Dead” remix.

Memphis Massacre 2 is out now on Quality Control.