New Music: MC Roughneck Jihad & DJ Awkward - The Return of RAWK

 

 

God there's something so creepy about Awkward's album art. His work with photographs especially tends to look like snapshots of the moment when a dream goes really, really bad.

That said, he's also a phenomenal producer, and together with underground legend and a personal favorite of mine as well they are MC Roughneck Jihad & DJ Awkward. The Return of Rawk is their debut full length album after a few singles they've dropped in the last few years. This album includes those four tracks, as well as two more songs and instrumental versions of all six, so yeah. Get excited now.

And do they disappoint? In my humble opinion not at all. I believe Trylemma actually reviewed one of these singles now that I mention it, so you can take it from us both that this duo kills together. Awkward has proven themself to be versatile to the point of it being a superpower, with the ability to work with emcees as diverse and varied as Open Mike Eagle and Megabusive and still somehow bring out the unique personality of each rapper with ease and style.

Especially in the case of these RAWK tracks, where Roughneck is well known for his choice of beats composed of dusty grimy boom bap samples, and Awkward traffics in electronic, drippy tripped out synths. Unexpectedly, this combos effectiveness is undeniable. They bring out in each other alternate personalities, especially in the case of Jihad. These songs display a new side of the rapper, who's eclectic vocabulary and flawless poetic sensibilities straight up deserve the polished and professional beats served up here. Dope as hell.

So with all the great music Roughneck has put out lately, I have to say this and The Little Assassins Handbook are absolute gold, and the rest are great too. We're talking about a rapper who's first official album came out in 1993 so the fact that he's still killing it two decades later is pretty damn awesome.

Get The Return of RAWK from Bandcamp here or here (depending who you want to send some cash too I guess), and if you're so inclined you can cop the vinyl straight from the source right here.