A great exercise in organized noise, the new tape from Quinn brings energy, groove, and experimentation to the twilight of the trap era. Southern hip hop currently faces some tough questions, as producers face an inevitable future when boomy 808s and rolling hi hats no longer appeal to mass audiences. The trap scene searches frantically for an off ramp, finding it in unusual places like the new surprise progressive rock album from Lil Yachty*, but this one successful crossover will fall far short of lifting the entire community to new heights. For that, an approach more similar to the one exemplified by Quinn may be in order: a progressive post-trap sound that works in an extremely short form to scratch the TikTok itch.
We talk a lot on this blog about digital chaos, a concept which rears its majestic head in Quinn’s music as well. Like other progressive hip hop artists, Quinn condenses the latent disorder out there hanging in the air into an ethos that appears in all three of these songs, comprising the heart and soul of the music. However, the South Georgia artist’s sound falls short of the franticness that one may expect from noisy hip hop; instead, Quinn presses down on this chaos with enough production muscle to force it into a tidy, consumable package. The resulting thrilling tracks resemble the most energetic moments from the witch house era of EDM, utilizing digital noise samples in perfectly sparing ways to ornament a solid danceable hip hop foundation.
*Yes, I listened to the new Lil Yachty. No, I will not review it for a couple of reasons. Firstly, this blog focuses on largely underground artists who stand to benefit from a free write-up of their sound and style. Secondly, it isn’t… incredible? Don’t kill me. I still like it, it would just take a lot more than that to get me to go out and review a major label blockbuster.