In Search Of Media

Released: September 29, 2023

Genre: Hip-hop/ Experimental

From: US

Label: Fat Possum Records

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Why you should listen

Holy shit, we’re here. Armand Hammer are back and back with a bang. We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is the group’s first album since 2021’s incredible Haram with The Alchemist. billy woods has already delivered a masterpiece with Maps, and ELUCID is still hot off his most recent album I Told Bessie, an exceptional album that deserves all the praise it can get. Both of these emcees are just getting better with time, and this new album here, I don’t over-exaggerate, may go down as one of my favourites of all time along with albums such as Brass (billy woods and Moor Mother) and woods’ Aethiopes. They’ve put out so many good albums collectively, including the wider family of Kenny Segal, Willie Green, Child Actor, Preservation and most recently JPEGMAFIA? Glad that relationship has mended, leading to some extraordinary tracks on this album. More on the producers below, but I wanted to highlight the wider team of musicians that appeared throughout – Shabaka Hutchings on woodwinds, Max (Child Actor) on keyboards, Adi Meyerson on bass, Hisham Bharoocha on drums, Abdul Hakim Bilal on guitar, Jane Boxall on marimba, vibraphone and tank drum, and DJ Stitches on the cuts.

Firstly, for the vision, I salute you. For the daring, fuck everything we about to go off type energy you bring, I salute you. The producers, the features, the additional musicians contributing, all of it sounds exceptional. The place to start is with the production. It’s some of the most cacophonous, overwhelming production I’ve heard in a really, really long time, and coupled with billy woods and ELUCID’s verses throughout, it really animates the album to the point where I feel like I live in it when I listen to it. Their visual stories paint pictures of their own experiences being Black men in America, the desolation and destruction of the working and lower classes in the country, and the corrupt political class, among many other things, on a 15-track album that is nothing short of sublime. I’ll write short summaries of each track the songs one by one below.

1. “Landlines”

Produced by: JPEGMAFIA
An unassuming put poignant opener, with a disorienting beat, and ELUCID kicking things off with an incredible flow and reflective lyrics on childhood. It’s like time is warped and you’re entering their world of disorienting and abstract sounds and lyricism. wood’s verse is great too, with lyrics referencing phones, time and communication – “Voice to text fuckin’ up, still sent it, it captured the sentiment / Raging rivers reduced the sediment”. Overall a great way to start the album off.

2. “Woke Up And Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die“

Produced by: JPEGMAFIA
Another creative Peggy beat with more of his signature drums. The production really is fantastic on this one. ELUCID kicks things off with an abstract verse about his own state of mind, and woods about an experience he had meeting a woman he has history with. The last line “Still made my shift, appropriately lit for the graveyard” has such incredible imagery, talking about death by work and capitalism and all its struggles. An early standout.

3. “The Flexible Unreliability Of Time And Memory“

Produced by: Child Actor
An eerie, drumless beat that animates the song effortlessly, with ELUCID’s ethereal voice questioning things, saying “Certainty is a circle, I don’t believe you”, while woods’ verse once again illustrates his talents as a writer. With references to news and media, as well as black scholars not nearly being at the same level as James Baldwin intellectually, he’s commenting on the degradation of media and public intellectualism in an age of fake news and instant gratification, whatever form that comes in. And that’s the flexible unreliability of time and memory. What’s real and what’s not at this point?

4. “When It Doesn’t Start With A Kiss“

Produced by: JPEGMAFIA, Pudge
Another Peggy production on ELUCID’s first verse, while the beat switch makes way for Pudge to deliver some heavy, wet drums for woods and ELUCID again to rap effortlessly. woods comes through with a Spongebob reference, of course he would, while ELUCID kills it with this bar “Name your opps without saying the system / Specificity matters / Numbers snitchin’, who might die today?” having a go at the powers that be with a menacing tone.

5. “I Keep A Mirror In My Pocket“

Featuring: Cavalier
Produced by: Preservation
Cavalier kills it as a first feature on the album, over a lively, orchestral Preservation beat. “Resurrect the laws, we the old gods Hu-man museum / The confused read him like they Kanye tweets in verse form” is a great bar, while ELUCID and woods go off as usual on a phenomenal beat. For an album that has so many producers and sounds, they sure killed it with the sequencing, because I wouldn’t have arranged these tracks any other way. But Preservation is really an exceptional producer.

6. “Trauma Mic“

Featuring: Pink Siifu
Produced by: DJ Haram
The first single is also the loudest track on the album. The loud banging at the beginning, Siifu’s angry, punk contribution, ELUCID’s spits an incredible verse “I am the mud / Waiting for the flood that they said would never come / Highwater pants on the shoulders of my elders / I be knowin’ better, but ain’t done it yet.” The way he’s able to paint images with his words is next level. woods also delivers a great verse over a heavy beat: “Pressure bust pipes, lose your mind gettin’ out our dreams / Brothers tryna rhyme / Told ’em it’s a hundred n***** doing that right up the street / Hate to say it, love to see it (love to see it)” are an example of his incredible words.

7. “N******** (Blocked Call)“

Produced by: August Fanon
The menacing and dark beats on this track are incredible. The hunting horror-esque eeriness of the first beat gives ELUCID the space to rap with menace, with abstract lyricism that complements wood’s phenomenal verses on a second beat that is equally as heavy as the first. woods’ lyrics reflect experiences doing dead drops and his relationship with people in the business, and how cold-hearted and ruthlss it all is. Some crazy bars here, with a standout being “God marked Cain so nobody could hurt him / Stained by that first murder.” It’s bleak, overpowering and cacophonous all the way through.

8. “The Gods Must Be Crazy“

Produced by: El-P
The energy of this track is insane, and I really want to hear more El-P x Armand Hammer collaborations in the future, because this is one of my favourites on the album. The beat itself is heavy and dynamic, while both emcees as usual provide some phenomenal lyricism. woods’ Beyonce line is phenomenal – “White women with pepper spray in they purse / Interpolating Beyonce / Illegal Formations”, commenting on cultural appropriation and people’s numbness towards understanding Black issues just for the sake of entertainment or to try and relate to Black folks. The way both ELUCID and woods flow on this one is crazy, too.

9. “Y’all Can’t Stand Right Here“

Featuring: Junglepussy & Moneynicca (Soul Glo)
Produced by: Steel Tipped Dove & Messiah Musik
One of the more disorienting beats on the album, with this seemingly prog-rock sample that is interpolated with other instrumentation, a DOOM sample, heavy vocals and features from Junglepussy and Moneynicca from Soul Glo. woods again steals the show for me with a verse about getting caught by the police and trying to win an appeal for a sentence despite chances being very slim. The way he paints this story is pretty amazing, with both Junglepussy and ELUCID’s verses also adding to the disorienting beat. I’m not necessarily saying that this is my least favourite track, but it’s the one that has taken me the longest to warm to in comparison to the rest. And of course with Steel Tipped Dove and Messiah Musik, that’s what to expect.

10. “Total Recall“

Produced by: Kenny Segal
A nice change of pace from the preceding track, “Total Recall” features Kenny Segal’s signature warm and inviting sound. The lyrics on the other hand, aren’t. As ELUCID contemplates nuclear war and woods is talking about how his “bedtime stories had the kids crying before they got tucked in”, the track is gloomy and quite depressing to be honest, but with a lush and textured beat that makes it one of the standouts of the album. To be honest, along with most of the tracks here, but hey, consistency!

11. “Empire BLVD“

Featuring: Junglepussy & Curly Castro
Produced by: Willie Green
With one of my favourite beats produced by the genius Willie Green, woods, ELUCID, Junglepussy and Curly Castro absolutely kill it. The dark, rumbling sub bass hits hard, while the beat makes me feel like I’m a forest at night, scared and uncertain about what’s about to happen to me. Junglepussy’s almost seductive opening verse sets the tone, as she question’s people’s true intentions with her. After Curly Castro’s intense and loud chorus, woods follows with an incredible verse with references to God, Rap Genius analysis, a very biblical verse that paints a dark and distressing picture of life around him. Castro’s verse is menacing, talking about his past experiences being around convicted felons in a vivid way, while ELUCID’s abstraction come to life, as he goes on the journey to his chosen path. All incredible verses on a 10/10 track.

12. “Don’t Lose Your Job“

Featuring: Pink Siifu & Moor Mother
Produced by: Black Noi$e & Jeff Markey
One of the most serene and soft moments on the album is also one of the best. billy woods and Pink Siifu float on the groovy Black Noi$e beat, with the sample twirling throughout. woods opens with “Break up weed on one phone, FaceTime on the other / Break up with me, I’m a G, I stay friends with your mother”, a phenomenal way to describe separation with a partner. Pink Siifu’s verse is one of the best things he’s ever written in my opinion, “Four quarters don’t change, but a small price for that brain / Maintain” is an example of this, with so much depth and imagery to his story it’s beautiful. ELUCID’s poetic, almost spoken word delivery is potent, while Moor Mother’s enchanting, cleansing piece on a great Jeff Markey beat is an example of everyone’s genius. It’s not only that they are all great emcees, but they are orchestrators of the sound they paint on, visionaries in that sense. But all this is a collaborative effort, which is what I love about this album.

13. “Supermooned”

Produced by: DJ Haram & ELUCID
This is one hell of a song. DJ Haram’s menacing, sub-bass, booming monster of a beat gives way for ELUCID to open up with a disorienting verse, while woods recalls a Christmas Day, telling vivid stories of another woman he was in love with. The way that beat drops at the end of that first verse is incredible. His second verse is exceptional too, with quotables including “If you’re gonna cry, cry in the shower / And tell them who sent you / Unexpectedly started crying to the instrumental / A stack of African presidents to represent you.” ELUCID floats on what I assume is his instrumental contribution, with a verse that makes me feel like he’s drowning in it. An exceptional all-round song that is going to be one of my most played from the album, I can tell.

14. “Switchboard“

Produced by: Sebb Bash
So… I’ve said publicly that this is probably one of my least favourite tracks on the album, and with each listen after that I’ve grown enamored by it. Even now, it’s growing on me even more. The subleties of Sebb Bash’s beat, the jittering melody, the change in tempo and atmosphere, and ELUCID and woods’ incredible verses. wood’s second verse especially is harrowing – “Missed calls from my own number / A long hallway / Then it’s the room where you identify your mother / Go back home to your lover / How many times can you tell her that you love her? / Why the cellar door open when it wasn’t?”. To paint that kind of picture of finding your mother’s dead body and having to deal with the grief of it all is heavy, but so potent. An incredible track.

15. “The Key Is Under The Mat“

Produced by: JPEGMAFIA
Peggy’s atmospheric, reflective and somber beat is the perfect way to conclude a long and dense body of work. The percussion is hypnotic, and you can always count on woods to kicks things off with a deep philosophical quote – “Everything that matters is finite / Hindsight before it happens”. He’s so good with his words and being able to challenge the listener with every new sentence. It’s also fitting that the end of his verse concludes with “Free as a bird”, and it feels that way with his artistry. ELUCID also seems to find clarity despite his hardships – “Been in a hole at the bottom / I believe in transformation / Knew where I wanna go”. And the album does feel transformational. The song’s conclusion seems uplifting, or at least both protagonists in this story, in this case woods and ELUCID, have found inner peace, while the world is burning around them. It’s an introspective, deep body of work showcasing both the artist’s vulnerabilities and critiques of the world around them.

Conclusion

The incredible lyricism throughout the vast sonic terrain of these loud, abrasive, subtle and occasionally more gentle and inviting beats makes for a memorable listen, and is one of those albums I’ll never forget where I was (at home in London with headphones after a James Blake gig) when I listened to it for the first time. As mentioned briefly, I feel like both woods and ELUCID have further opened up emotionally in general over the years, but here as well, as their perspectives and experiences are unique and fascinating to me. They are always witty, using dry humour as a way to cope with the fuckery happening around us. We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is another monumental tour de force, an album that will go down as one of my favourites not only this year, but of all time. On par with some of the best music I’ve heard, and I’m so happy I get to witness greatness (and will when I see them live next month). It’s bolder, more ambitious than anything thedone collectively thus far. And I’m sure there’ll be a lot more music coming in the next decade, and I’m here for it all!

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The album: