For the past decade, the New York rapper Cakes Da Killa has been making a driving, purposeful, unapologetically queer form of club-rap, and he’s always been good at it. Right now, though, Cakes in on a run. Two years ago, Cakes was a contestant on Rhythm + Flow, the Netflix reality-competition show, and he was bounced early in the competition. I don’t know whether that lit a fire up under him or whether he just found the right channel for the fire that’s always been there, but he’s on fire right now.

On his 2020 single “Don Dada,” and on the Muvaland EP that followed, Cakes Da Killa teamed up with New York producer Proper Villains to make a version of hip-house that’s both hard and glamorous. On the brand-new Muvaland Vol. 2, Cakes and Proper Villains team up once again, and they sound like they’re completely locked-in. This is defiant and driven music, and you can hear that just in the first four words of the EP’s first song. But it’s also playful and expansive enough for long melodic passages and for the EP’s closing track “Spinning,” a thumping but melancholic team-up with singer Sam Sparro. The whole EP is really impressive, and you can hear it below.

Muvaland Vol. 2 is out now on He.She.They./Warner Music.