It Takes a Million Midnights To Hold Him Back

Out of the blue - or perhaps more appropriately, the black midnight sky - Drasar Monumental is back with a new EP entitled Darker Than a Million Midnights.  That's the kind of title you hear and say to yourself, well, I hope he can live up to it.  But given Drasar's last couple releases, I think if anybody in 2023 could, it's probably him.  Because an easy trap you could dig for yourself with a title like that is to just dive immediately into raw, stripped down hardcore beats and menacing lyrics, giving yourself nowhere to go after the first couple songs.  But Drasar, using nothing but his own personal record collection, regularly concocts a lush, vibrant soundscape that's anything but minimalist, despite his purist methods (this record comes with a paper explaining, "no digital 'digging' methods were employed in any of the production sourcing").

Midnights comes right out the gate with some classic heist raps, looping up a vocal sample of Master Killer from "Snakes" just in case it wasn't already immediately obvious the spirit it's meant to be taken in.  "Guns don't argue, hand over your wallets, empty out your pockets, give me all your watches.  Carnage, because the motherfuckin' rent's due."  Not exactly innovative, but excellently executed... sort of like how I can listen to Grand Daddy IU rap about pimpin' all day every day.  But it also turns out to be the set-up to a more complex lyrical trick, where two songs later (broken up by some more traditional battle raps), the subject matter has transformed into a serious condemnation of our economic system.  He starts out stating, "the free market doesn't exist if you don't have the capital," and cutting up Double X Posse's "Money Talks" before settling into even darker truths, "no love, no sympathy for the downtrodden.  We've seen so much death, now our hearts have turned rotten."  It ends with a authentic(?!) recording of someone broadcasting their immediate intent to commit suicide, news reports on the growing homeless population, and a grimly ironic MC Shan vocal sample from "Left Me Lonely." 

Part of what keeps Drasar's work so dynamic is his how he regularly shifts tones and samples sets mid-song, so it's always much more packed than a predictable loop, and this is definitely on display here.  Or just his ability to pack together a host of sounds that all delicately piece together.  For example "Disco Razor Tag, Part 2" (Part 1 was on Box Cutter Brothers 5) feels as alive as if he'd collaborated with a full-on disco band, packed with interludes and crowded instrumentation.  But anything but soft, it's actually a direct challenge to producers who don't take their work dead seriously or appreciate Hip-Hop's disco roots, including an intro explaining that  weren't always as family friendly as we may remember them today and where you could end up, "hit upside your head with a bottle; now your brains are hanging out."

This is an angry record in all the best ways, the way only Hip-Hop can talk with no punches pulled.  He saves the most personal blow for last with "The Numb Out:"

"Life ain't the same since my brother died.
Sometimes I wanna run and hide; can't look my mother in the eyes;
And then take time to breathe.
Pardon me if I wear my heart on my sleeve.
The world took my dreams...
And shattered them;
Took all my aspirations, and then they laughed at them;
Stabbed me in the back, in the abdomen.
That's why I treat you like an unwanted pathogen."

The next verse starts out similarly, "life ain't the same since my father died."  Like, remember when we first heard Sister Souljah going off on Terminator X's album, and then she signed to Epic and we all thought, wow, this album is going to be crazy?  The production was there, but then it turned out she basically just did this stiff spoken word thing, with Ice Cube and Chuck D rapping circles around her?  This record is like the promise of that album delivered upon, if she had the skills to "turn the booth into Pearl Harbor," as Drasar puts it.  And yeah, there's more nuanced artistry and less didacticism; I'm not trying to say this guy's literally the male Sister Souljah or anything.  I'm just saying he's giving us now what we wanted then.

All up, it's six songs with the instrumentals on the flip.  Keeping it a tight EP was probably a judicious decision, so there's never a lax moment.  It comes in a full color picture cover and yeah, it's out now.  Grab one while you can.