Back in the early days of 2020, underground rap all-star Denzel Curry and big-deal producer Kenny Beats joined forces for Unlocked, a brief energy-bomb of a collaborative album. The duo recorded it in a three-day studio session that grew out of Curry's appearance on Kenny's now-defunct YouTube show The Cave. These days, Kenny Beats is known as Kenneth Blume, and he's producing Geese and Weezer and shit. But he's still Kenny Beats to us, and he proved it when he and his old collaborator Rico Nasty got back together for the album RX a few weeks ago. Now, we're getting another Denzel Curry/Kenny Beats album, too — or, technically, a Denzel Curry/Kenneth Blume album.
Earlier this year, Denzel Curry debuted his new underground rap supergroup the Scythe, and they released their crew album Strictly 4 The Scythe. Now, Curry is about to head out on tour with recent collaborators Knocked Loose, and he's talking about pivoting to hardcore. Kenneth Blume, who has produced for bands like Show Me The Body and Trash Talk, could conceivably help with that. But that doesn't seem to be what's happening on ii, the new collaborative album that Curry and Blume will release in just nine days.
According to a press release, Curry and Blume got into some big fights while working on ii, and they ultimately decided to go back-to-basics on the record, making it with nothing but an an SP-404 and a cheap microphone. In that promo copy, Blume says, "The work Denzel and I do has never been easy, which is why it’s so rewarding. We’ve started every project on opposite sides of a coin and fought our way to the center. When I hear this album, I hear the growth and the fight in equal parts."
Lead single "Difference" is a cluttered, energetic boom-bap track, and it's got Curry in fired-up but technically precise form. It's got a hook from the singer Yebba, while other ii tracks feature Westside Gunn and JPEGMAFIA. NOTACHANCE directed the "Difference" video," which shoes a crackly VHS-style split-screen of both Curry and Blume starting their days. Check it out below.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Gone Fishing"
02 "Evil Grin" (feat. JPEGMAFIA)
03 "Candlelight"
04 "Product"
05 "UPS"
06 "Benjamin"
07 "Cold Night In Hell"
08 "Crown" (feat. Westside Gunn)
09 "The Difference" (feat. Yebba)
ii is out 8/21 on Loma Vista. Pre-order it here.
