The second track to leak from Killer Mike’s upcoming album, R.A.P. Music, produced entirely by El-P, is a different animal, but no less ferocious. The Atlanta rap firebrand and the New York indie-rap luminary previously brought together their respective brands of non-self-righteous righteousness on “Big Beast,” a clanging, exuberant burst of fury featuring Southern aplomb courtesy of T.I. and Bun B. A second cut, this one titled “Untitled,” premiered earlier today on satellite-radio channel Shade 45’s Sway on the Morning. While it’s a more contemplative, solitary affair, it’s similarly compelling.
This morning, Killer Mike introduced the track, saying it was inspired by the thoughts of mortality that truth-speaking civil rights leaders must have shortly before they’re killed, and he said his grandmother recently died in his arms, which, wow. “Untitled” itself doesn’t make its point so directly, but in that context it’s clear to see how Mike’s verses build from reflections on Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X to his own blunt talk in the final verse: “I don’t trust the church or the government / Democrat, Republican / Pope, or a bishop, or them other men.” His answer appears to be hip-hop: spitting “this ghetto gospel” and rolling blunts. Preaching to the choir? Sure, but what a sermon: “This is Basquiat with a passion like ‘Pac and a body like Biggie.” A sung chorus by featured guest Scar gives us an adequate amen.
As El-P gets set to release his own May 22 album Cancer for Cure, which features aptly unhinged advance MP3 “The Full Retard,” “Untitled” provides yet another example of the former Def Jux leader’s fiery recent work. (Via Nah Right, but hear Killer Mike’s comments to Sway over at Rap Radar)
