(New Album) Armand Hammer "We Buy Diabetic Test Strips" (Discussion Thread)
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Piff Perkins
Veteran
Agreed. I love the production but kind of feel like this shyt needed more dynamic, versatile rappers to really elevate it. It's dope but they stick in their lanes flow wise, no matter what. Would have loved to hear JPEG on some of these, including the beats he produced.
I finally got around to really listening to this. It's good 
Some of these lines are hitting home too. I love this style. I wish the beats were a little more dynamic, as others were saying, but it's really about the lyrics on these types of joints for me. I like it, but you gotta be in the right mood
Some of these lines are hitting home too. I love this style. I wish the beats were a little more dynamic, as others were saying, but it's really about the lyrics on these types of joints for me. I like it, but you gotta be in the right mood
Its a good albumI finally got around to really listening to this. It's good
Some of these lines are hitting home too. I love this style. I wish the beats were a little more dynamic, as others were saying, but it's really about the lyrics on these types of joints for me. I like it, but you gotta be in the right mood
That Total Recall shyt fire
ABlackMan
Superstar
Name your project we buy diabetic test strips lmao wtf
The JPEGMAFIA-produced song "Landlines," which instantly jumps upon a loop of reversed vocals and phone noise E L U C I D and forests, opens the album's story. The two rappers trade verses before unleashing a storm of raps that create the atmosphere. Woods begins with the brilliant phrase, "Rather be codependent than co-defendants / If it's up to me we'd mend the fences," choosing to be vulnerable emotionally rather than being truthful. He goes on, "Voice to text fukkin' up / Still sent it, it captured the sentiment,"where modern technology mistakenly captures meaning better than we communicate ourselves. The album purposefully begins with a particularly strong lyrical and unusual instrumental moment before exploring the auditory cityscape of raps, sound, and noise. This theme of a voicemail appears often throughout the album.
The story then shifts to the second JPEGMAFIA-produced song, "Woke Up and Asked Siri How I'm Gonna Die." The production has a lot of reverberating calm, rippling vocals, and glitchy chords. Once more, the song asks Siri how you're going to die, a blunt query that takes aim at technology. Before the verse from Woods begins, E L U C I D starts rapping, "I ain't seen the bottom yet / I ain't seen the bottom yet," turning this lyric into a sex metaphor. The next line is, "Mumbled through the brain fog / Tinnitus like a chainsaw." The chorus of the song merely repeats, "Woke up and asked Siri how I'm gonna die / She replied, she replied," leaving the song's main revelation unresolved. Shabaka Hutchings' woodwind loop that opens "The Flexible Unreality of Time & Memory" is a musical exploration of the metaphysical. The song, which was produced by Child Actor, has almost no drumming since the rapping is propelled by alternate rhythms created by the woodwinds that loop and jerk. The chorus, "Certainty is a circle / I don't believe you," is set by E L U C I D and Kayana. It is at this point that ideas of "the certain" become non-linear and circular, resembling the loop of woodwinds that runs underneath it. The track is consequently getting to the fundamental basis of what we consider truth, proposing new, flexible ways of perceiving the abstract certainties. And with that, E L U C I D raps, "I wrote the same thing yesterday."
applying this circularity to rapping itself, since writing and the day eventually form one big loop. Using the same saw imagery from the previous track, Woods builds upon the image of the looping record in the line "My record spin like a bandsaw / My record speak for itself, don't try to add-on" to convey the straightforward message that the music speaks for itself. Rather than returning to put out our fires, the great writer James Baldwin appears to be lost to the past in Woods's straightforward rejection of this idea of circularity in time, saying, "But I assure you Jimmy Baldwin not coming through that door."The music then abruptly switches to Kayana singing over Shabaka's woodwinds, playing into the unheard-of rather than looping.
E L U C I D raps emotionally charged lines like "Naming names, even when it hurts / Purpose of the pain / Back in places, cycles, residual loops" on the next track, "When It Doesn't Start With a Kiss," which is produced by JPEGMAFIA and P.U.D.G.E. The song from Hiding Places from 2019 is referenced when Woods raps, "SpongeBob to Poseidon, I got the operation tightened," but it sounds like the operation is no longer underwater and is going much better. The beat then rapidly changes for Woods' verse, accompanied by the sound of many crashing snares. This verse, which has lines like "Lost that university stipend / Tossed ricin in USPS for the excitements," may be written from a similar viewpoint to the song with the same lyrics. “The sun came like a jailer jangling keys, jaunty / Black zombie”.
The album then transitions into the next track, "I Keep A Mirror In My Pocket," which is created by DJ Preservation and features a potent boom bap vibraphone loop. The story takes a little break at this point. The brilliant line "The confused read him like they Kanye tweets in verse form" appears in Cavalier's opening verse. Then, in the second verse, E L U C I D turns the saying "Don't invite me to your house / Ask me to remove my shoes / And your floors ain't clean / Think about that" on its head, challenging the belief that shoes are not appropriate in private. All of this is happening as gorgeous vibraphone lines and chords sway beneath them. In reference to his academic mother, the song ends with him rapping, "PHD you know moms ain't raised no dummy / So many double negatives I know she's sick to her stomach," while also employing a number of non-academic double negatives, such as "ain't raised no," to accomplish this. The song's conclusion is reached by Preservation's loop after that.
The next song, "Trauma Mic," begins with a sparse but forceful snare drum crash. Producer DJ Haram starts the beat with a sluggish, growling bass beat, then Pink Siifu joins in first, adding a punk vocalist presence to the song. Before E L U C I D starts the refrain, "No slave no world," a proverb addressing the reality that much of the modern world is built upon the work of the enslaved, Siifu keeps yelling over the instrumental. E L U C I D then adopts an apocalyptic persona and raps, "I am the mud / Waiting for the flood that they said would never come."Once again, Woods handles the last lyric, and this time, trap hi-hats join the constant crashing snare. With lyrics like "Any one of you bums could be Jesus," "Hype when I first laid eyes on Bathsheba," and the ending "Missionary cause I know God see us," which is flavored with colonial terror, his raps are mostly centered upon religious imagery.
The story then shifts to the second JPEGMAFIA-produced song, "Woke Up and Asked Siri How I'm Gonna Die." The production has a lot of reverberating calm, rippling vocals, and glitchy chords. Once more, the song asks Siri how you're going to die, a blunt query that takes aim at technology. Before the verse from Woods begins, E L U C I D starts rapping, "I ain't seen the bottom yet / I ain't seen the bottom yet," turning this lyric into a sex metaphor. The next line is, "Mumbled through the brain fog / Tinnitus like a chainsaw." The chorus of the song merely repeats, "Woke up and asked Siri how I'm gonna die / She replied, she replied," leaving the song's main revelation unresolved. Shabaka Hutchings' woodwind loop that opens "The Flexible Unreality of Time & Memory" is a musical exploration of the metaphysical. The song, which was produced by Child Actor, has almost no drumming since the rapping is propelled by alternate rhythms created by the woodwinds that loop and jerk. The chorus, "Certainty is a circle / I don't believe you," is set by E L U C I D and Kayana. It is at this point that ideas of "the certain" become non-linear and circular, resembling the loop of woodwinds that runs underneath it. The track is consequently getting to the fundamental basis of what we consider truth, proposing new, flexible ways of perceiving the abstract certainties. And with that, E L U C I D raps, "I wrote the same thing yesterday."
applying this circularity to rapping itself, since writing and the day eventually form one big loop. Using the same saw imagery from the previous track, Woods builds upon the image of the looping record in the line "My record spin like a bandsaw / My record speak for itself, don't try to add-on" to convey the straightforward message that the music speaks for itself. Rather than returning to put out our fires, the great writer James Baldwin appears to be lost to the past in Woods's straightforward rejection of this idea of circularity in time, saying, "But I assure you Jimmy Baldwin not coming through that door."The music then abruptly switches to Kayana singing over Shabaka's woodwinds, playing into the unheard-of rather than looping.
E L U C I D raps emotionally charged lines like "Naming names, even when it hurts / Purpose of the pain / Back in places, cycles, residual loops" on the next track, "When It Doesn't Start With a Kiss," which is produced by JPEGMAFIA and P.U.D.G.E. The song from Hiding Places from 2019 is referenced when Woods raps, "SpongeBob to Poseidon, I got the operation tightened," but it sounds like the operation is no longer underwater and is going much better. The beat then rapidly changes for Woods' verse, accompanied by the sound of many crashing snares. This verse, which has lines like "Lost that university stipend / Tossed ricin in USPS for the excitements," may be written from a similar viewpoint to the song with the same lyrics. “The sun came like a jailer jangling keys, jaunty / Black zombie”.
The album then transitions into the next track, "I Keep A Mirror In My Pocket," which is created by DJ Preservation and features a potent boom bap vibraphone loop. The story takes a little break at this point. The brilliant line "The confused read him like they Kanye tweets in verse form" appears in Cavalier's opening verse. Then, in the second verse, E L U C I D turns the saying "Don't invite me to your house / Ask me to remove my shoes / And your floors ain't clean / Think about that" on its head, challenging the belief that shoes are not appropriate in private. All of this is happening as gorgeous vibraphone lines and chords sway beneath them. In reference to his academic mother, the song ends with him rapping, "PHD you know moms ain't raised no dummy / So many double negatives I know she's sick to her stomach," while also employing a number of non-academic double negatives, such as "ain't raised no," to accomplish this. The song's conclusion is reached by Preservation's loop after that.
The next song, "Trauma Mic," begins with a sparse but forceful snare drum crash. Producer DJ Haram starts the beat with a sluggish, growling bass beat, then Pink Siifu joins in first, adding a punk vocalist presence to the song. Before E L U C I D starts the refrain, "No slave no world," a proverb addressing the reality that much of the modern world is built upon the work of the enslaved, Siifu keeps yelling over the instrumental. E L U C I D then adopts an apocalyptic persona and raps, "I am the mud / Waiting for the flood that they said would never come."Once again, Woods handles the last lyric, and this time, trap hi-hats join the constant crashing snare. With lyrics like "Any one of you bums could be Jesus," "Hype when I first laid eyes on Bathsheba," and the ending "Missionary cause I know God see us," which is flavored with colonial terror, his raps are mostly centered upon religious imagery.
The tune "nikkardly (Blocked Call)" opens with a booming pace and what sounds like an ear-splitting melody of microphone feedback. August Fanon's production gives the piece an uneasy rhythm right away. Once more, E L U C I D is the first rhyme. Its eerie delivery of words like "Blocked call, voicemail still hit ya / Like building walls / And throwing dead pigeons over" perfectly reflects the uneasy tempo. The song suddenly switches up the tempo, with the drums getting louder and a deep bass end taking over. With his opening remarks, "Admittedly nikkardly / I won't even give these n****s bad energy," Billy Woods joins the battle. “Think in cursive, spit jagged fragments / Every word out my mouth drag my people backwards” in the second verse, until it turns in the third, opening with an image of the rapper and his child: “I write when my baby's asleep / I sit in the room in the dark / I listen to him breathe”. Lines like "I think about my brothers that's long gone and this was all they ever dreamed / People I lost to COVID-19, but it ain't do a thing to the fiends" transport the listener to a place of deep contemplation of woods. After one more chorus, the song and the first part of the CD are concluded with a suitable voicemail.
The ferocity of El-P produced "The Gods Must Be Crazy" then ushers in the second half. Over booming drums and bass, woods and E L U C I D trade short, five to ten bar verses with each other, delivering stand out lines such as “Henry Kissinger my album's only feature”, “Black on both sides / Purged before birth” and the darkly comedic: “White women with pepper spray in they purse / Interpolating Beyoncé / Illegal formations”. Later on in the song, E L U C I D, alludes to "thoughtcrime," which is defined as the illegal act of thinking in opposition to social norms enforced by the government in George Orwell's 1984. In fact, it seems as though the entire song is a verse-based creation of a dystopian, Orwellian city, complete with soldiers.The entire song seems to be a construction of a dystopian, Orwellian city in verse, complete with racist, pepper-spraying Beyoncé fans and war criminal Henry Kissinger (who has since risen from the dead). This is a darker interpretation of the title of a Mos Def album, and it's all set to the beat of the dystopian-minded soundscaper of hip hop.
The next song is "Y'all Can't Stand Right Here,"The song begins with a sample of MF DOOM saying the title, "Y'all can't stand right here," before a wah wah guitar and startling trumpets mix together to create a cascading effect. The first verse is "woods raps," which is filled with references to the law. Lines like "Balaclava on the judge / Gold fronts looking like Westside Gunn" and "Not so secret police visit your home" are just a couple examples. The title of the track and its sample mantra seem to be the voice of the law, telling people where they can and cannot stand. Junglep*ssy raps after Woods, then Money Nicca of Soul Glo makes a refrain after that. Next, it's E L U C I D's chance to enter the fray. He asks, "What kind world?" repeatedly, hinting at the Orwellian, policed future that previous tracks have explored. Woods starts rapping again, opening with the line "Young Winnie Mandela in the courthouse / Black bra, white blouse," before the beat abruptly changes to a skittering piano. This instantly relocates the previously ambiguous "world" to apartheid-era South Africa, where critics of the system are imprisoned (Winnie was even imprisoned in 1958 while carrying Nelson Mandela's child),
"Total Recall" is the next song, and it begins with Shabaka's calming woodwinds swaying over a pulsating percussion beat and a laid-back bass line. The song then transitions into its sampled version, thanks to Kenny Segal, who turns the arrangement into a beat that loops. The refrain "If they push that button," a repeated threat of nuclear destruction, introduces E L U C I D. Next, in his verse, he describes apocalyptic events that will occur in our lifetimes: “Earth getting warmer, we going the other,” in which mankind would become less compassionate and colder as the earth heats up to the point of annihilation. This is followed by Woods' verse, which uses a rap reference-heavy style to depict terror. Rapping about the menacing presence of "hip hop's boogeyman," he says, "Might fukk around and say Suge Knight three times in the mirror." He concludes the verse, "No father, my style wild b*stardised / (The dirty version)," making reference to Ol Dirty b*stard, a Wu Tang Clan member. Before going on to the following track, the song ends on another phone recording.
One of the album's standout tracks, "Empire BLVD," is produced by Backwoodz mainstay Willie Green, who turns a bass line into something far louder and more powerful than typical funk. A booming drum and blown-out bass begin the song with an intense burst of sound, and then Junglep*ssy takes the verse, concluding with her words, "the scent of Junglep*ssy is in the air." Woodwinds start to play at this climax, then a thunderous beat takes over and Curly Castro raps the song's electrifying refrain: “Watch me go down now” Keeping the volatile rhyme going for nearly the whole verse, as in lines like "My casket cobbled together / But I'm not stopping till the speakers wobble / Til the edifice topple / Til the best they got grovel / Followed them to the precipice / N**** said show me God's got you," the bass reverses and Woods takes the second verse. The third verse is then taken by Curly Castro, who expands on his growling chant over the blown-out bass line. The fourth and final verse is taken by E L U C I D, who now rhymes over distorted woodwinds provided by Shabaka. We Dub Diabetic Test Strips, a stripped-down soundscape remix by veteran dub producer Scientist and King Tubby protégé, is another worth checking out (if you can).This tension quickly gives way to the melancholic serenity of Black Noi$e and Jeff Markey's production, "Don't Lose Your Job." The song begins with a simple beat and a looping electric piano, followed by a description of a relationship by Woods: "Break up weed on one phone / FaceTime on the other / Break up with me, I'm a G / I stay friends with your mother." Next, Pink Siifu starts rapping in his gritty voice, starting, "I jumped out the oven / 9 to 5," and saying out loud, "Don't lose your job." Then, E L U C I D enters the scene, changing the beat to a distorted, eerie soundscape while singing, "What doesn't kill you makes you blacker."
The ferocity of El-P produced "The Gods Must Be Crazy" then ushers in the second half. Over booming drums and bass, woods and E L U C I D trade short, five to ten bar verses with each other, delivering stand out lines such as “Henry Kissinger my album's only feature”, “Black on both sides / Purged before birth” and the darkly comedic: “White women with pepper spray in they purse / Interpolating Beyoncé / Illegal formations”. Later on in the song, E L U C I D, alludes to "thoughtcrime," which is defined as the illegal act of thinking in opposition to social norms enforced by the government in George Orwell's 1984. In fact, it seems as though the entire song is a verse-based creation of a dystopian, Orwellian city, complete with soldiers.The entire song seems to be a construction of a dystopian, Orwellian city in verse, complete with racist, pepper-spraying Beyoncé fans and war criminal Henry Kissinger (who has since risen from the dead). This is a darker interpretation of the title of a Mos Def album, and it's all set to the beat of the dystopian-minded soundscaper of hip hop.
The next song is "Y'all Can't Stand Right Here,"The song begins with a sample of MF DOOM saying the title, "Y'all can't stand right here," before a wah wah guitar and startling trumpets mix together to create a cascading effect. The first verse is "woods raps," which is filled with references to the law. Lines like "Balaclava on the judge / Gold fronts looking like Westside Gunn" and "Not so secret police visit your home" are just a couple examples. The title of the track and its sample mantra seem to be the voice of the law, telling people where they can and cannot stand. Junglep*ssy raps after Woods, then Money Nicca of Soul Glo makes a refrain after that. Next, it's E L U C I D's chance to enter the fray. He asks, "What kind world?" repeatedly, hinting at the Orwellian, policed future that previous tracks have explored. Woods starts rapping again, opening with the line "Young Winnie Mandela in the courthouse / Black bra, white blouse," before the beat abruptly changes to a skittering piano. This instantly relocates the previously ambiguous "world" to apartheid-era South Africa, where critics of the system are imprisoned (Winnie was even imprisoned in 1958 while carrying Nelson Mandela's child),
"Total Recall" is the next song, and it begins with Shabaka's calming woodwinds swaying over a pulsating percussion beat and a laid-back bass line. The song then transitions into its sampled version, thanks to Kenny Segal, who turns the arrangement into a beat that loops. The refrain "If they push that button," a repeated threat of nuclear destruction, introduces E L U C I D. Next, in his verse, he describes apocalyptic events that will occur in our lifetimes: “Earth getting warmer, we going the other,” in which mankind would become less compassionate and colder as the earth heats up to the point of annihilation. This is followed by Woods' verse, which uses a rap reference-heavy style to depict terror. Rapping about the menacing presence of "hip hop's boogeyman," he says, "Might fukk around and say Suge Knight three times in the mirror." He concludes the verse, "No father, my style wild b*stardised / (The dirty version)," making reference to Ol Dirty b*stard, a Wu Tang Clan member. Before going on to the following track, the song ends on another phone recording.
One of the album's standout tracks, "Empire BLVD," is produced by Backwoodz mainstay Willie Green, who turns a bass line into something far louder and more powerful than typical funk. A booming drum and blown-out bass begin the song with an intense burst of sound, and then Junglep*ssy takes the verse, concluding with her words, "the scent of Junglep*ssy is in the air." Woodwinds start to play at this climax, then a thunderous beat takes over and Curly Castro raps the song's electrifying refrain: “Watch me go down now” Keeping the volatile rhyme going for nearly the whole verse, as in lines like "My casket cobbled together / But I'm not stopping till the speakers wobble / Til the edifice topple / Til the best they got grovel / Followed them to the precipice / N**** said show me God's got you," the bass reverses and Woods takes the second verse. The third verse is then taken by Curly Castro, who expands on his growling chant over the blown-out bass line. The fourth and final verse is taken by E L U C I D, who now rhymes over distorted woodwinds provided by Shabaka. We Dub Diabetic Test Strips, a stripped-down soundscape remix by veteran dub producer Scientist and King Tubby protégé, is another worth checking out (if you can).This tension quickly gives way to the melancholic serenity of Black Noi$e and Jeff Markey's production, "Don't Lose Your Job." The song begins with a simple beat and a looping electric piano, followed by a description of a relationship by Woods: "Break up weed on one phone / FaceTime on the other / Break up with me, I'm a G / I stay friends with your mother." Next, Pink Siifu starts rapping in his gritty voice, starting, "I jumped out the oven / 9 to 5," and saying out loud, "Don't lose your job." Then, E L U C I D enters the scene, changing the beat to a distorted, eerie soundscape while singing, "What doesn't kill you makes you blacker."
"Supermooned," the second song produced by DJ Haram, comes just after this. The rhythm is made up of creepy chimes and a constantly shifting drum beat that alternates between being booming and dispersing. In both verses of the song, Woods raps a series of bizarre and horrific images, such as "slave teeth," "black dunes," and "The walls of my residence a looping coloured pencil," with the distinction between black and white recurring in each vision. This peculiar tune works exclusively with the weird vision, never settling on the conventional. It's like a twisted short story from Argentinean horror writer Mariana Enriquez.
Sebb Bash provides the beat for the penultimate track, "Switchboard," which delves farther into the eerie quiet with rippling synths and whirs propelled by a pulsating bass. E L U C I D takes center stage after the preceding track, which focused mostly on the woods. He raps the hook, "Behind this mask / Behind this face [..] So many people at the same time," gradually removing each mask to show both nothing and everyone. He raps, going in and out of body, as he maintains this imagery in the verse: "Body to inhabit / Universe, stars at the feet, time dragging / Forgetting, I remember, I forget again." Notably, the title of this song about multiple identities is derived from the technology that connects a large number of individuals by phone, as if E L U C I D speaking from the perspective of a switchboard which takes on so many faces.
The album then transitions into "The Key Is Under The Mat," which serves as its conclusion. We end right where we started, with a beat produced by JPEGMAFIA,but instead of the phone noise and loop of backward vocals, there's a constant boom of drums and bass. The first verse is written by Woods, who spews out lines like "Princess and the Pea but it's a Glock 9 under the mattress" and "Our demons search every night but sometimes they can't find us / And it's like it was at first." The title and chorus of the song transport us to a front door—possibly the one seen on the album cover.
The next verse is written by E L U C I D and includes lines like "Snatching embers to hold in my pocket / Soot in my fingers." Then the chorus and title start to ring again. Why does the album's closing image of a house persist in its final moments is the question. Is it a house, or is it just another flat in the warped, dystopian metropolis that has been fully depicted throughout the project thus far? The rhythm simply fades away.
Sebb Bash provides the beat for the penultimate track, "Switchboard," which delves farther into the eerie quiet with rippling synths and whirs propelled by a pulsating bass. E L U C I D takes center stage after the preceding track, which focused mostly on the woods. He raps the hook, "Behind this mask / Behind this face [..] So many people at the same time," gradually removing each mask to show both nothing and everyone. He raps, going in and out of body, as he maintains this imagery in the verse: "Body to inhabit / Universe, stars at the feet, time dragging / Forgetting, I remember, I forget again." Notably, the title of this song about multiple identities is derived from the technology that connects a large number of individuals by phone, as if E L U C I D speaking from the perspective of a switchboard which takes on so many faces.
The album then transitions into "The Key Is Under The Mat," which serves as its conclusion. We end right where we started, with a beat produced by JPEGMAFIA,but instead of the phone noise and loop of backward vocals, there's a constant boom of drums and bass. The first verse is written by Woods, who spews out lines like "Princess and the Pea but it's a Glock 9 under the mattress" and "Our demons search every night but sometimes they can't find us / And it's like it was at first." The title and chorus of the song transport us to a front door—possibly the one seen on the album cover.
The next verse is written by E L U C I D and includes lines like "Snatching embers to hold in my pocket / Soot in my fingers." Then the chorus and title start to ring again. Why does the album's closing image of a house persist in its final moments is the question. Is it a house, or is it just another flat in the warped, dystopian metropolis that has been fully depicted throughout the project thus far? The rhythm simply fades away.
ShaDynasty
Chaos Theory Part 1 - The Album
Took me a long time to listen to this, and a few weeks to let it grow on me.
Another dope album. Its more low key than other albums they dropped but its a cool vibe and lyrics are dope as usual.
Another dope album. Its more low key than other albums they dropped but its a cool vibe and lyrics are dope as usual.
Saw them in DC and had the opportunity to speak to both of them and quelle Chris. Real chill guys man, felt like I was talking to family lol, took pics with all of them and got their cd for the album. It’s definitely an acquired taste but I’m down for the group, Billy woods and Elucid are some smart brothers.
Majestyx
Duck Season
a colab i never thought would exist