Skumlordt – Skumlordt

While shopping at Columbus record store The Needle Exchange Records, I came across a cassette in the local section that was labeled a must-have Columbus hip-hop record. The mysterious album artwork – a nighttime park scene with a police car present – was alluring enough that I picked up the tape titled Skumlordt by Skumlordt. I became a fan immediately, suckered in by the abrasive, experimental music I heard across all five songs.

Skumlordt is a collection of five songs by Columbus rapper Skumlordt, four of them already belonging to the EP BigBellyBoys!, which was released on December 3, 2021. The cassette has recently been circling around local record stores, which is how the five-track EP came across my radar. Although you can’t find the additional track – “9MM /.45/.38” – on streaming services, it exists only on this cassette issue. For now. You’ll want to track it down if you find yourself gravitating toward lo-fi-sounding hip-hop.

Skumlordt is an artist who has been around Columbus, committed to hip-hop since 2015. That included making music with friends in a highly successful group called TRiBE. That’s to say that Skumlordt is by no means this musician’s first rodeo. The writing on the EP is extremely tight. All of the tracks contain so many interesting, haunting horror core features, building a foundation for a sound uniquely theirs. 

Even though all five tracks have beats that creak with an eerie nature, there are a couple that stand out as having that fun element of collaboration. “WHODAFUCK?” and “BIGBELLYYBOYS!” clash and clang between each bombastic verse, layered intricately with trippy, celestial elements. The EP has its serious moments but also shows its playful side.

The ominous second track “HOWYOUSAY?” dips between different vocal arrangements, all sounding mysteriously present. Lyrics like the chorus, “How you count them commas?/How you get them zeroes?/I’ve been sweeping through my city like I’m trying to clean,” are threatening brags that serve as warning shots to those listening. No track gets more experimental than the one that was left off of the 2021 EP, though. “9MM/.45/.38. is the most lo-fi sounding track of the collection, with a beat that intergalactically ebbs and flows behind the overblown delivery by Skumlordt.

The final track starts off like it’s straight out of a horror film, with an almost live-element aspect and sirens blaring in the background. This actually bleeds in quite beautiful considering the vibe of the past track. The way the bass has this dark quality to it, it makes you feel like you’re trying to escape from a foreign building with maze-like corners; turns that produce a paranoia of the unknown. Even after spinning this tape a few times, Skumlordt still seems like a mysterious individual themself. 

There really ins’t much to dissect about the individual Skumlordt verses because each one is delivered with ferocious heat. Not one lacks effort; not one lacks the vigor of an artist trying to make a statement. 

Maybe “9MM/ .45/.38” will see the light of streaming day. For now, you can give the BigBellyBoys! EP a spin or check with a Columbus record store – such as Needle Exchange or Used Kids Records – to see if they still have a copy of the cassette release. 

Knowing how hot this tape has been selling, it’s likely that it may need to be restocked. Again.

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