There’s an expression popular in certain hip-hop circles that speaks volumes: “spitter shit.” It’s a term that can be applied to any lyrics-first hip-hop, especially ’90s inspired hip-hop, and for many rap purists it describes a perfect ideal. For this small but vocal minority of rap fans, nothing matters as much as the rhymes—not the production, not the songwriting, not the choruses (in fact the fewer choruses the better). For these listeners, rap music is first and foremost about the act of rapping.
The Milwaukee duo Dahm & Mashio’s latest album Illuminati Shxt, which was re-released online with extra tracks this month, might be the purest example of straight spitter shit I’ve heard all year. From the pixelated cover art to the muffled production, this is not a record that sweats the details, to put it gently. One track smack in the middle of the album ends with a full minute of silence, which I’m assuming wasn’t deliberate. But again, details don’t matter on a release like this. All that matters is the rapping, and that Illuminati Shxt doesn’t skimp on.
Produced primarily by Dahm (with a few lifted beats from Dahm’s primary influences, J Dilla and Madlib), the album plays like an old ’90s freestyle tape, all beats and bars. Some of those bars inevitably fall flat, but for children of golden-age hip-hop this stuff is irresistible comfort food, and when Dahm & Mashio go all in, they can drop some fierce verses that leave you wondering what they could do if they tried a little harder. Maybe that will come in time, maybe it won't, but in the meantime they’ve dropped an album that’s more charming for its blemishes.
You can stream Illuminati Shxt below, via Bandcamp. If you’re planning on just sampling a few tracks, start at the end of the album. That’s where you’ll find the duo’s stronger material.
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