are, in terms of their unique aesthetic parameters, one of the most fun, rewarding rap projects to keep tabs on. They release tons of records, pretty much one a year, with several functioning as guest albums featuring a legendary rapper, such as , and . In keeping with their comic book aesthetic, these guest spots are conceptualised as a crossover event, in which the guest artist infiltrates the fabric of the album, like a villain invading from a parallel universe. For example, on 2021’s ‘Super What?’, rocks up on around half of the tracks, allowing his verses’ to achieve maximum impact, like a city-destroying set-piece.
On their newest effort, (7L, and member ) are joined by a new, masked counterpart: . It’s never been confirmed, but it’s widely speculated that this is the alter ego of actor Tom Hardy. He’s never publicly confirmed this, however, various bread crumbs trails, such as (who features on this record) posting a photo of him and Hardy and implying they were working on something together, plus Hardy’s famous late-nineties rap tape, means it’s fair to assume that (whose popped up on other tracks in recent years) is the famously verbally-dextrous Hardy.
’s bars do also, let’s be honest, sound a lot like Hardy. He’s a master of OTT voices, and this character is no different. He actually sounds a bit like New York hard-ass (who puts in an album highlight guest verse on ‘Dragon Canon’), mixed with the growled Southern accent he tries on in the 2012 film Lawless. On his big solo cut ‘Frankie;, he also references a bunch of Hardy-starring movies: “Kray twins, that’s a regiment, I’m the revenant”. Once you get past the inherent strangeness of Hardy spitting bars, you quickly realise his word association and internal rhymes are actually excellent. He goes hardest on ‘Brothers Grimm’ spitting; “you feeling the copperhead, you coppin’ lead when I’m dropping it/striking out like these moccasins/stopping dead”.
It’s obviously hard not to overly focus on Hardy. I could be wrong, but now we know that isn’t actually Timothee Chalemet, A-list actors rarely, if ever, drop hard-edged rap records. But to turn back to the main cast of characters, this is actually one of the best albums. There’s tons of killer beats (the highlight being the straight-up evil ‘That’s Law’), great guest spots ( being the highlight) and buoyant, snarled verses. The best track is ‘Omega Beam’, which is an absolute party; pummeling basslines, a fun guitar sample and an expertly-delivered verse from .
Pure, giddy rap fun, A-list presence or not (it would be hilarious if it was all a massive troll and Hardy has nothing to do with ), these 15 tracks are a vibrant and hard-boiled collection whose laser gun-focused and swaggering villainous aura will have you non-stop nodding your (masked) heads.
8/10