Bronx rapper Doley Bernays, like so many of New York’s savvy MCs right now, remains true to the city’s teeth-gritting spitting tradition while also embracing styles from the outside world. On “Till We Fall,” he somberly delivers real-talk honesty (“And I ain’t saying sell drugs, but I’m saying it’s faster/ And I ain’t saying use guns, but I’m saying they’ll back up”), but tempers it with a bigger-than-his-block worldview that finds a sliver of hope in acknowledging just how screwed up things are (“More shooters than doctors,” he raps, frustrated).
Produced by MP Williams of ReeLife (co-producer of A$AP Rocky’s “Ghetto Symphony”), the maudlin beat waddles along. Half-inspirational, half-desperate piano and skittering, gut-punching drums capture the complexities of hustling. The hook, if you can even call it that, is particularly inspired: A decaying glitch-treated vocal makes way for a chopped up and stuttering Slim Thug sample, it’s like the song is temporarily taken over by some juked Bmore club remix back from when Swishahouse ruled the rap landscape. “Till We Fall” will be on Doley Bernays’ upcoming EP, Just in Case.
