Stream Young Nudy’s Hard, Impressive New Album Gumbo
The Atlanta rap weird Young Nudy has never really blown up on a pop level, but he’s spent the past few years carving out a reputation as a cult hero. Nudy releases a lot of music, and he’s got an amazing ear for spaced-out, off-kilter beats. (He’s the first prominent rapper ever to work with producer Pi’erre Bourne.) Nudy also picks some wild-ass cover art for all of his records. You can see all those gifts at work on Nudy’s new album Gumbo.
Gumbo comes a few months after Young Nudy’s last project, the very good EA Monster, and it also arrives shortly after someone released 172 of Nudy’s unreleased songs. (Nudy promised to beat someone’s ass for that infraction. No word on whether he actually did.) Nudy makes so much music that a massive leak like that feels like it’s barely an inconvenence.
Gumbo is another collection of hard, weird raps over hard, weird beats. If you don’t care about recent-vintage Atlanta rap music, then you might not find a whole lot hear to like. But if you’re into that stuff, it’s cool to hear Nudy tweaking its aesthetics and conventions while remaining in the pocket. All of the songs on Gumbo are named after food, and the album only has two guests: Nudy’s cousin and regular collaborator 21 Savage and Memphis great Key Glock. (Key Glock, it’s worth noting, just released his own quietly excellent new album Glockoma 2 this past Friday.) Stream Gumbo below.
Gumbo is out now on RCA.