Blockhead – “Now That’s What I Call A Posse Cut Vol. 56” (Feat. Bruiser Wolf, Danny Brown, billy woods, & Despot)
You should get excited when you see that title. I shouldn’t even have to type anything here. The title should be all the information that you need. Nevertheless, I’ll use this space and supply some context. New York producer Blockhead is an underground rap veteran who came up collaborating with Aesop Rock more than 25 years ago. Blockhead and Aesop have maintained their connection over the years; they released the collaborative album Garbology in 2021. Over the years, Blockhead has also worked with plenty of other artists and made his own instrumental tracks; his 2021 quarantine album Space Werewolves Will Be The End Of Us All is well worth your time. Now, he’s got a new album with a loaded guest-roster.
Blockhead’s new solo album The Aux has contributions from underground rap greats that span multiple generations. Aesop Rock is on the album a couple of times, and he shares space with people like Open Mike Eagle, RXK Nephew, Quelle Chris, Navy Blue, and Fatboi Sharif. There’s an Armand Hammer track on there. There’s a Casual/Breezly Brewin collab, for the real ’90s underground heads. And then there’s the album closer, which made my eyes bug out when I first saw the tracklist. It doesn’t disappoint.
Blockhead’s beat for “Now That’s What I Call A Posse Cut Vol. 56” — great title — is a jazzy boom-bap lope that keeps shifting, and four truly great rappers use it to go off. Danny Brown’s new album Quaranta is out today, and it’s one of my favorites of the year. On this song, Brown uses his fired-up nasal-attack delivery, and the track also features his dizzily wordy protege Bruiser Wolf. The Aux is coming out on billy woods’ Backwoodz Studioz label, and woods appears three times on the LP, including a concussive verse on this song. And then there’s the mercurial Despot closing things out. Despot just randomly appeared on the Lil Yachty track “Rain,” but he’ll go years without releasing anything, and he goes bonkers on this thing. Listen below.
While you’re at it, stream all of The Aux below.
The Aux is out now on Backwoodz Studioz.
