ripdejas - tape goodluck

One of the undisputed kingpins of Brazillian-collective cakefromhell, ripdejas has been dropping these super underrated minitapes all year. Coming from an adjacent background in beats but more on the electronic and bass side, DJOTA’s side project has been pivotal in the underground beat scene over the past couple years - heavily involved in multiple collaborative tapes as cakefromhell, flying across the globe for the “sick as hell world tour” that graced us this year, not to mention the awesome soulhop mixes he puts up on his YT channel. He’s a mover and shaker of the scene, and yet I personally feel like his tapes this year might have flown under the radar. tape goodluck is my favourite of the bunch, where like usual he delivers an all killer no filler suite of beats he’s seemingly put together over the past month or so, but I feel like he brings both his sample and drum game up with this one. Every kick just slightly dragging and every snare hitting right on time, the hats here are where I feel like these deep pockets are found, riding the cymbals so drunkenly he sounds like Questlove on Voodoo. There’s so much beautiful source material to cover as well, punchy hooks and melodies found in spades, like the deep crooning vocals round about 0:45 or the nocturnal ghostly echoes at 2:10. I love how diverse the samples are that he’s flipping, everything from disco to bossa nova, all in a way that feels focused and fluent. I said it recently about dunkrat’s latest ep, but I have to admire sometimes tapes that don’t waste anyone’s time, never dragging longer than it needs to but playing out with endless groovy replay value, reflected in the countless plays I’ve had of this tape across the year.

KEY BEAT: 4:03 - I know this isn’t really it’s own beat, but the waaaay dragged out hats and claps blend perfectly with such a graceful sample. This one always has me nodding my head like crazy.