Killer Mike | “Don’t Let the Devil”
For many, 4/20 is practically a national holiday. And yes, we’re talking about the fact that it was Killer Mike’s birthday. To celebrate his 48th circle around the sun, the legendary rapper and activist dropped this hypnotic new track off his first solo album in a decade, the upcoming June release, Michael.
Putting the new track into terms that only a true film aficionado would understand: “(Run the Jewels) is the X-Men, this is my Logan,” referring to the critically acclaimed origin story of Wolverine. Born Michael Render in the Westside Adamsville neighborhood, Killer Mike’s new album titling also mirrors Logan, which comes from Wolverine’s non-superhero first name.
Like the 2017 film, there is a grizzled gravitas to this musically textured new song. Like any great franchise deepening its canon, there are some familiar and fresh characters mixed in. With a vocal assist on this track, we get the other half of Run the Jewels, El-P — the Magneto to Mike’s Professor Xavier, or maybe vice versa — along with enigmatic artist thankugoodsir.
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Immaterial Possession | “To the Fete”
It may surprise no one that the bonkers and beguiling Athens-based Immaterial Possession was formed by Atlanta natives Cooper Holmes and Madeline Polites, who met while living in an artist commune. An appropriately uninhibited and unvarnished energy, with a hint of old-timey debauchery, pervades this track off of the band’s upcoming new album, Mercy of The Crane Folk, which drops on May 5.
The rest of the eclectic and fiery outfit is John Spiegel on drums and Kiran Fernandes on keys, clarinet and flute. Incidentally, Kiran is the son of John Fernandes, a former member of the Elephant 6 collective in Athens, who has played on 77 records and now runs his own label, Cloud Recordings. Heartwarmingly, the father/son duo have even played gigs together around the Classic City — often going on long improvisational musical journeys on stage, as only family can.
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The Remnant | “Know This”
Though this musical duo seems to have dispersed sometime around 2015 — their last album was 2014’s Indian Summer — it’s worth savoring the promise that The Remnant held. That’s evident here in our Vintage Track of the Week, a sweet, affirming love letter that cascades with thoughtful and deceptively easy-flowing lyrics (you’ve gotta respect any verse that casually slides in a Jane Austen reference). Plus, there’s a melodic throughline that samples one of the Beatles’ most delicate and lovely songs (feel free to challenge me; you’ll lose), “Here, There and Everywhere,” from 1966’s Revolver.
Featured on their 2009 album PB&J, “Know This” also makes it clear how inspired they were by hip hop icons the CunninLynguists (another Atlanta Soundtrack vintage favorite). While they graced our city’s music scene, The Remnant brought together the creative forces of rapper Tribe One and Adán Bean, the latter of whom is a nationally recognized, prize-winning slam poet and TedX speaker who describes himself as an “introvert with an extrovert’s job.”
