Conway The Machine is maybe the straight-up hardest rapper in Griselda, the surging Buffalo rap crew currently resurrecting the bloodthirsty spirit of late-’90s street rap. The Alchemist is the veteran rap producer who played a role in shaping the bloodthirsty spirit of late-’90s street-rap. In recent years, Alchemist has evolved into a thoughtful, psychedelic rap-production auteur, often by teaming up with individual rappers on full-length projects. Alchemist already did all the beats on one of this year’s best rap albums, Boldy James’ The High Price Of Tea In China. When you factor in that Alchemist has been working with Griselda for years, this is a perfect time for the Alchemist and Conway to come out with a collaborative project. That’s exactly what we’re about to get. We won’t have to wait long.

In less than a week, Conway and Alchemist will release the collaborative EP LULU. (Shout out to Lou Reed and Metallica.) The terrifying image that you see above is the cover art, which should make you excited. Today, Conway and Alchemist have shared the first single: “Shoot Sideways,” a collaboration with Californian livewire Schoolboy Q.

“Shoot Sideways” is basically what you would want from this combination of names: An ominous low-key churn full of gun-violence threats. Schoolboy Q doesn’t rap a verse, but he handles the eerie singsong hook. Conway gets guttural: “I move the powder on the side, it ain’t talcum/ Try to slide, you gon’ die, you know the outcome/ Before I even got signed or dropped a album/ I was in the trap, Draco by the blinds like Malcolm.” Listen and check out the LULU tracklist below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Intro”
02 “14 Ki’s”
03 “The Contract”
04 “Shoot Sideways” (Feat. ScHoolboy Q)
05 “Calvin”
06 “They Got Sonny” (Feat. Cormega)
07 “Gold BBS’s”

The LULU EP is out 3/30 on EMPIRE. The phrase “‘They Got Sonny’ (Feat. Cormega)” makes me extremely happy.