stitch x kenshin - newbirth

I’ve been hesitant to properly speak on naiyō and RAGzTHEWIZARD’s tapes, because I feel they’re genuinely getting more and more refined with every new release. Their stylings can be different sometimes, whether it’s naiyo’s hand-played off-kilter hihats and snares, or the quick but swung drums of RAGz. But I think it’s in their shared influences where their beats omit an energy reflecting off each other - a love of NMTMO, swipeex. and Gex, and a deep passion for hiphop at its core. It’s in this shared DNA where a collab tape like this is really interesting; the two of them meeting a middle-ground with the sole goal to make you knock your head while you’re listening. In a really similar way with how I felt about LOOKFORDOG. BUMPS, newbirth feels like it’s set in either the late-night or early-morning, in a club where the speakers are blown out with bass rattling, the two beatmakers performing a b2b constantly one-upping each other, breaking your neck in a sweaty mosh pit with one strobe striking through. Beautiful rnb melodies are birthed anew here when they’re chopped to pieces and filtered through heavy claps and kicks, with persistent tape hiss and shocks of static blaring across the mix. These beats feel physical in a way I don’t think either of them had reached before, letting loose any inhibitions to make something soft or considered, but instead designed to make you move. I don’t know if it was in subconscious competition or whether it was truly them trying to create something great together under different aliases, but the result in my opinion is truly great - pushing their own individual boundaries to build a tape that’s had huge replay value for me in the past few months. I’ve been blessed to be able to collab with the both of them on occasion but I can only hope stitch and kenshin team up once more, because I really never wanted that strobe light to end.

KEY BEAT: nighttimedanser - through all the sounds of static and rushing water is an incredible loop, pulled straight from a 2000s rnb club and transported to today, sporadic kicks sparking the groove.