First Spin: Main Attrakionz’s Collaborative EP ‘cLOUDLIFE’

On cLOUDLIFE‘s opening track “Chap 3,” Squadda B briefly croons Jim Jones’ hook for Cam’ron’s “The Dopeman,” and the song’s whole conceit is pretty much cribbed from Juelz Santana’s endlessly quotable, OCD playa verse from “Hey Ma” (“Get in the car, don’t touch nothing, sit in the car”). Presumably, this is the first time a Dipset tribute has been soundtracked by a beat from the Anticon collective, right? All four of cLOUDLIFE‘s songs are just as bizarre and inspired. A screwed Werner Herzog makes a creepy cameo at the end of Zachg’s beat for “J Bar,” and “So Whut,” finds Jel merging his geeked-up, digital splatter production style with some of old school hip-hop’s most stalwart vocal samples. The final song, “Take Her Shoppin,” best captures Main Attrakionz’s drifting, surprisingly emotive rapping, though. Tugged along by Zachg’s manipulative, movie score piano and programmed drums imitating Explosions In The Sky’s jazzy shuffle, Mondre M.A.N. and Squadda B turn the kind act of taking a girl out and buying her nice things, into an epic, transcendent piece of post-rock, hip-hop. It’s a strangely warm, even desperate, sort of love song: “Girl, you wanna shop with me / Spend this guap with me / Blow this chop with me / I’ll take you shoppin’…” cLOUDLIFE will be available for download at Rad Reef on Friday but you can stream it below, exclusively at SPIN: