Warp Records’ newest signee, South-London emcee Gaika, comes through with an urgently sinister dancehall single. Incredibly experimental and with an addictive pounding beat, the track has strong influences of grime and reggae yet exists in the same realm that one would place hip-hop punks like Death Grips or Mykki Blanco.
Gaika’s lyrics are thought-provoking and timely with lines like “Our bodies as props to the jewels and the glocks, that’s the only narrative that we see” – but the production is so mangled, dystopic and danceable that he stays far away from any stale ‘concious hip-hop’ ideals. This is boundary-pushing, incendiary music at its finest.