Album Review: DJ Rashad- Double Cup

I could be wearing a shirt that says “I Don’t Give a Fuck” on it.

But they’re all sold out. I missed my opportunity. It’s a shirt for every occasion, really. Wear it out with friends. Wear it when your wife’s grandmother comes to visit. Wear it to work. Wear it to church services on a Sunday morning.

Oh, wait. Never mind. They still have the red one for sale. Probs gonna need to get one of those real soon...

How am I supposed to stay on top of every possibly interesting record that is going to be released? Do I need to quit my job and somehow get paid to stay at home and read, word for word, everything that gets mentioned on Pitchfork? If this were the case, I wouldn’t have slept so long on this DJ Rashad album.

The single “I Don’t Give a Fuck” was released over the summer, and P4K named it “Best New Track.” And now that the full album, Double Cup, has dropped, I’m really kicking myself for not hopping on this bandwagon a lot sooner.

Double Cup is the kind of album that’s difficult to explain. It was knighted with “Best New Music,” and christened with an 8.6 this week, meaning you should probably drop whatever it is you are doing and listen to this shit right now. I mean, that’s what I did. It’s a bizarre record—unsettling, dark, tense, and claustrophobic. But there are also humorous moments, and damn you guys—these beats are so dope.

In the review on Pitchfork, the term “footwork” is used a number of times. For those of you who don’t want to take the time to do a something search on that—footwork is a music and dance style that originated in Chicago, which coincidentally, is where DJ Rashad hails from. While Double Cup runs the gamut of genres and sounds, frenetic tracks like “Reggie” are prime examples of “footwork.”

Traditional house music sounds, huge Endtroducing…-esq funk samples, snippets of dialog from movies, some slight rapping, some slight singing, drum ‘n bass, skittering pitch shifted vocals, trap drums, and pretty much any other kind of electronic music you can think of have been crammed into Double Cup.

One of the stand outs is the album’s opening track, “Feelin.”  Placing it at the very beginning though does serve as a bit of a false pretense for what is to come. A criticism I’ve read of this record is that it lacks a real cohesive sound—and that is a valid point. Each track is unique, and there is very little connecting one to the other. I don’t see that as a problem though—it actually serves as a strength. Through all the style hopping and blending, it shows that DJ Rashad and his collaborators are incapable of running out of original ideas.

In sharp contrast to the easily accessible and listenable vibes of “Feelin,” the aforementioned “I Don’t Give a Fuck” is like a nightmare you can’t wake up from. In a post-Burial world, off-kilter beats, “bass drops,” and “wobbles,” have become commonplace. “I Don’t Give a Fuck” takes that formula, but runs it through the most terrifying and unsettling filters possible, splicing the voice of Tupac Shakur from the crime-drama Juice.

The only real clunker is the closing track, featuring a robotic voice repeating “I’m too high,” over and over again—the song is aptly titled “I’m Too Hi.” It’s not a bad song, but the jittery production of the track make it a little unnerving of a listen, and it serves as a bit of an odd choice is the last thing you hear before the album comes to an end.

Double Cup can be incredibly harsh and abrasive, but within that, there is real beauty. Every note is crisp, and nearly every song is exceptional. It can embrace you at times, but it also keeps you at a distance. This isn’t an easy listen, but DJ Rashad has created an album that is worth the effort.

Double Cup is available now digitally via Hyperdub, on CD next week, and on LP the following week. I guess.