K of the I???: "Cell-Shaded/Daydreams/Nightmares"

As an unofficial third member of Ninja Tune rap unit Nephlim Modulation Systems and frequent collaborator of Dadaist hip-hop luminaries like Noah 23 and Busdriver, K of the I??? has been responsible for some of the most bright, if secret, moments in hip-hop over the past few years. A son of the internet-based indie rap scene that exploded throughout North America and Europe in the early 2000s, his music is that of a mind attached to the spectacle: cybernetic stream of consciousness poetry wrapped around electro beats and data clouds, like schizophrenic satellites seeking a thousand truths in the vastness of human civilization. While many rap artists have more output or greater media presence than K, few possess such a natural descriptive cadence or visceral hunger for inspiration.

Produced by hip-hop alchemist Thavius Beck, “Cell-Shaded DayDreams/ Nightmares” portrays a progression in K’s complex, often confounding work. Rather than adhering to the classic “beat + rhymes= song” formula, the duo have innovated a more fitting structure, Beck doing his best to bring K’s entropy governed, information saturated rap to life. An introductory cascade of up-tempo synth blips and back-streamed melodics invites you into K’s neon dimension, where he immediately begins reciting an ascertation of how things look from his space: “Candid cameras, cantaloupes, frontal lobes, microbes and tenants dissolved / Rework angles to evolve status cleansing till the riddle of the puzzle solved / My timeframe nameless as it seems, with no direction.” This vibrant scenery is brought to life by K’s rapid, associative flows and fractious blues inflections.

Minimally crunked electro beats drive K through stargate harmonies, steering his raps from bandwidths into material statements and poetics: “With every breath I take / an earthquake takes place … Man, if I condense space and time / You can adapt to a place like mine.” By envisioning himself and the aural world he inhabits objectively, K successfully breaks from the frenetically insulated headspace that characterized much of his earlier work, departing into the relative terra firma of the creative pop song.

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