ShrapKnel - Nobody Planning To Leave (2024) [Hi-Res]

Review
The struggle between cynical frustration and resilient strength can be a powerful driving force in underground hip-hop lyricism because the best expressions reveal more symbiotic relationships than internal conflicts. That's where Curly Castro and PremRock shine on the third full-length from their partnership as ShrapKnel. Nobody Planning to Leave is thematically broad, referentially dense, and marinated in reactions to stress, even as it maintains (and expands on) an indie rap tradition of artful funny/bleak punchlines that's now three generations deep. The complementary contrasts between Curly Castro's deliberate, blunt clarity and PremRock's surplus-of-ideas verbosity stand out as pure musicality; their flows alone are enough to drive home an embattled tension even when their lyrics take a few passes to parse. It's a tendency they toy with on "Sadatay," which nods to the inscrutable yet vivid hyperslang of the 2001 film Pootie Tang even as they declare it's "a very clear, concise message, no decoding necessary"—this, twelve tracks deep into an album filled with verses that hit like stream-of-consciousness waypoints in a plan to map an entire cosmos of sideways allusions and direct influences. Their rap's not just abstract, but abstract impressionism. It's referential to past eras, but too cutting in its invocations to feel like it's pining for a better time when it's more important to face the present. "LIVE Element" doesn't just invoke vets of underground hip-hop history from Black Sheep to Masta Ace, but expands on their precedent, laying bare how both the intense crowd-moving and quietly reflective approaches to indie rap lyricism can share space and weight. (A host of excellent verses from fellow alt-rap travelers—Open Mike Eagle, Onry Ozzborn, Lungs, Breezly Brewin, ELUCID, D-Styles—back that perspective up throughout the album.) And "Human Form" wrestles with internal contradictions and external impressions until the idea of even representing the self seems like a feat that requires an extra level of transcendence ("I will not miss my human form/ It was kinda just a uniform"). But ShrapKnel can be brutally clear when they want: they don't just invoke De La Soul and El-P with the title of "Deep Space 9 Millie Pulled a Pistol," they expand that tandem vision of firearm violence with a concluding pair of anecdotes about how the mere presence of a gun can lead to life being rendered cheap. Underground lifer Controller 7's beats meet the mood perfectly without staying in place; it careens from ambient orchestral minimalism ("Nutkracker Blues") to vintage horror-flick eeriness ("Dadaism 3") to negatively spacious jazz-piano boom-bap ("Bogdan Interlude"), but never loses the air of determination that keeps these MCs pushing through the haze. © Nate Patrin

Tracklist:
1-1 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - Metallo [2:25]
1-2 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Open Mike Eagle;Premrock;Curly Castro - Dadaism 3 [4:25]
1-3 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - Bogdan Interlude [2:03]
1-4 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - LIVE Element [3:28]
1-5 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Onry Ozzborn;Premrock;Curly Castro;Lungs/Lonesword - Steel Pan Labyrinth [3:16]
1-6 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - Human Form [3:00]
1-7 ShrapKnel;D-Styles;Controller 7;Breezly Brewin;Premrock;Curly Castro - Nutkracker Blues [3:42]
1-8 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - Deep Space 9 Millie Pulled A Pistol [3:24]
1-9 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - Kaishakunin [3:31]
1-10 ShrapKnel;D-Styles;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - 8-Finga Piano [2:43]
1-11 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro;E L U C I D - Uru Metal [3:50]
1-12 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - Sadatay [3:14]
1-13 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - Illusions Of P [2:30]
1-14 ShrapKnel;Controller 7;Premrock;Curly Castro - Worry Doll [2:59]