Gravediggaz - 6 Feet Deep

The great grandaddy of all horrorcore rap, Gravediggaz' 6 Feet Deep fused the skewed, dusty funk of Wu-Tang onto Addams Family organ and a lyrical prediliction for horror theatrics, although in contrast to what followed, many of the songs are tongue-in-cheek, goofy, and digressive.  Containing two members of hip-hop veterans Stetsasonic and RZA from the newly-famous Wu-Tang Clan, plus the late Poetic, they initially formed after being screwed by Tommy Boy records in various ways.  What at first was a one-off spleen venting became a movement in underground hip-hop, with a legion of horror obsessed freaks taking to the 808 and mirroring the rise of underground death metal in the early and mid-nineties.  I've made a little game lately of comparing landmark albums in the respective genres; let's call this one Mental Funeral.

Bang Your Head

Three 6 Mafia - Mystic Stylez

Gravediggaz beat them by a year, but the debut album by Three 6 Mafia is perhaps the defining moment of horrorcore rap.  The filthy low budget production, the predilection for violent imagery, the revenge fantasies and the murky, cobwebby atmosphere that define the genre are all here in copious amounts.  Roughly equivelant to Scream Bloody Gore, the record still sounds menacing, vital, and prescient.

Now I'm Hi

Spvcxghsztpvrrp - Blvcklvnd Rvdix 66.6

Miami's teenage horror rapper Spaceghostpurrp has released what may well be the year's darkest and strangest mixtape,  Blvcklvnd Rvdix 66.6.  Sounding like it was recorded on a tiny, busted cassette player and liberally slathered in Godzilla and Mortal Kormbat samples, and as murky and uncommercial as any deliberately obscure black metal kvlt, this bloated monstrosity is a purple smear of ugliness, a robotussin stain on the plush carpet of hipster rap.  It's anti-social, unfiltered, and wallowing in sociapathic obscurity.

SVCK V DICK FXR 2011

Brotha Lynch Hung - Season of da Siccness

It's one of those nights, my dearies, where only the ugliest and most twisted horrorcore can satisfy the dark urges roiling within. Brotha Lynch Hung's pet themes - cannibalism, mysogyny, madness, infanticide, booze - all permeate this miasmal gangsta record like smoke from a funeral pyre. A west coast answer to the New York's burgeoning horror rap movement, this first LP sounds like a hybrid of the G-Funk synth-and-melodica slink and the menacing funk of a John Carpenter soundtrack. This is roughly the rap equivalent to Butchered at Birth. Tread cautiously.
Rest in Piss

Esham - Bruce Wayne: Gotham City 1987

Well, it's been a moment since we've had some graphic, cartoonishly violent horrorcore, hasn't it? Oh dear, lets remedy that immediately. Esham, one half of the notorious "acid rap" pioneers Natas, baffingly assumes the alter ego Bruce Wayne, and proceeds to list in great detail his many horrendous crimes and superhuman sexual exploits. It's a bit overlong, like many albums of this style, full of skits and with most of the good stuff front-loaded. Somehow, though, Esham sounds crazier and crazier throughout the record, increasingly erratic and more dangerous. I still can't wrap my head around the Batman thing either, and Esham's many lyrical riffs on the subject are near gibberish. Still, there's a lot to like here, from the nasty synth skeets to the startling level of uncomfortable detail, if that's your sort of thing...
Lowlafalana

Satanic Verses

1. Tech N9ne - What’s Yo Psycho?
2. Jedi Mind Tricks - Suicide
3. Geto Boys - Chuckie
4. Insane Poetry - In The Mouth Of Maddness
5. Gravediggaz - Graveyard Chamber
6. Esham - 666
7. Jay-Z - Lucifer
8. Brotha Lynch Hung - Dead Man Walking
9. Cage - The Soundtrack...
10. Bone - Hell Sent
11. Canibus - Layered Prayers
12. Ganksta N-I-P - Horror Movie Rap
13. Flatlinerz - Satanic Verses
14. NATAS - Like A Spirit
15. Big L - Da Graveyard
16. Ras Kass - Interview With A Vampire

Obligatory Halloween Mix

The Devil'z Rejects - Necronomicon

A collaboration between Jus Allah of Philly's notorious Jedi Mind Tricks and Boston rapper Bomshot (yeah, I've never heard of him either), The Devil'z Rejects is an aggressively nasty affair, alternating between seemingly deep meditations on heady esoteric topics and homophobic/homoerotic genital torture scenarios. Must of this is the work of Jus Allah, notorious for anti-gay lyrics so cartoonish and obsessive that they seem like thinly veiled come-ons from that sweaty guy in the men's room at the Greyhound station (he also repeatedly threatens to give your moms AIDS). Likewise, his aspirations toward intellectualism are belied by the song seriously dissecting the Da Vinci Code (which, charmingly, features a guest rapper named Evildead). A third blow to its credibility is the constant referencing to the eponymous Rob Zombie movie, a steaming turd of mediocrity. Still, the album throbs with a malevolent life of its own thanks to the bluesy samples and scratchy, 36 Chambers-style layers of needle hiss, and some guest spots by less anti-social MCs.
I'mma turn everything man makes to pancakes

Insane Poetry - Blacc Plague

Here's another fine example of early horrorcore from L.A. hip-hop ensemble Insane Poetry, although they called their particular sound "The Terrifying Style" and distanced themselves from that already waning sub-genre. Full of strange pitch-shifted samples (a decade before Kanye West), crunchy junkyard percussion, layered vocalizations, and horror movie references, particularly "Angel Heart" and John Carpenter's "In the Mouth of Madness," the album is further distinguished from its horrorcore brethren by a G-Funk organ vibe and a merciful minimum of stupid skits. Frontman Cyco (hey, it's L.A.) vividly and hilariously paints himself as a more verbose Jason Voorhees, stalking the streets, picking off wack MCs who have wandered stupidly into "the wrong neck of the woods." Also of note is the Steven Seagal-themed "On Deadly Ground," a real treat for the careful listener. After some squabbling in '96 with Nastymix, the label home to Sir-Mix-A-Lot and The Accused, this album was suppressed and only properly released twelve years later. Fortunately Insane Poetry, unlike virtually all of their peers, continue to record and release Juggalo-free horror-themed rap, like the recent collaboration with DJ Sutter Kane and the upcoming "Dead Sea Scrolls".
I hang nerds from they scrote sacs

Ras Kass - Rasassination

Today's special is Rasassination, with a wide variety of dystopian flavours for the sensitive palate: everything from your standard 90's cyberpunk themes to visions of a coming Ice Age, punctuated by filthy humour, elaborate descriptions of Mr. Kass' dated wardrobe, discussions of astronomy and physics, and the rather silly sounding stab (so to speak) at conventional horrorcore "Interview with a Vampire." Adding to the exotic ambiance are multiple guest stars with X's and Z's in their monikers, from human internet meme Xzibit to El Drax, Jazze Pha, Jah Skillz, Bad Azz, and RZA. Thematically messy but wildly ambitious, this album retains a special little place in your narrator's throbbing cybernetic heart.
OohWee!

B.O.N.E. Enterpri$e - Faces of Death

Forgive the hurriedness this evening, dearie, but your host is in a mad dash for escape and has only a brief window of time to send a communique. Therefore I leave you with this early example of horrorcore, notable for its Nightmare on Elm Street-riffing single "Hell Sent," the debut from the entity soon to be known as Bone Thugs-N-Harmony. If that cover doesn't sell you on it immediately, I shan't waste precious words trying to convince you. History will vindicate me.
Bless da 40 oz

Cage - Movies for the Blind

This album is a rabid revenge fantasy, a drug-addled escaped mental patient's one man war with the world. Full of spite and poison, Cage spits and slobbers his way through track after track of violent daydreams, often naming names. That said, it's also complex, multi-layered, diverse, and cathartic in a way, like draining venom from a snake bite.
I'll rip off all your flesh and make an outfit.

Ganksta N-I-P - The South Park Psycho

For a brief period of time in the nineties there existed a style of hip-hop called horrorcore, which combined the most delightful aspects of cartoonishly violent gangsta rap with the synth-laden musical atmosphere and blood-lust of the darkest horror movies. This style, despite its promising renaissance period, was quickly dated and degenerated into self-parody and the horrid Juggalo sub-culture. Fortunately many of the best albums of the genre have aged well and remain bracing and disturbing. Ganksta N-I-P was a Houston contemporary of Geto Boys and penned their horror-themed hit "Chucky." This album, one of the earliest and most primitive examples of horrorcore, rattles like a burnt skeleton and samples liberally from notable horror scores. N-I-P's rhymes are truly bizarre and menacingly surreal: he explains his sheer insanity by threatening to exchange heads with a moose and marry a dead horse in the lead track "Horror Movie Rap." Careful listening reveals many evil non-sequiturs, more often than not involving members of the animal kingdom that surely exist nowhere near Houston. Evidence indicates Ganksta N-I-P was genuinely, legitimately insane.
Step up and die.