By Alfonso Abreu
From the glitching hi-hats, blown-out 808s, and sporadic drum patterns heard all over the group “#stepteam’s” SoundCloud page, a few seconds of silence between each song will be filled with questions fueled by confusion and curiosity. The New York rapper MIKE and producer Tony Seltzer recently released their newest collaborative tape, “Pinball 2”. “Dolemite” is an early standout with that features the Harlem autotune crooner Lunchbox, as they both flow with the flickering hi-hats and unorthodox snare patterns reminiscent of starting up the stove, courtesy of the track’s co-producer Ivvys, a member of the collective “#stepteam”. The New Jersey artist Maajins and DMV producer Sxprano join Ivvys to complete the producer trio that is “#stepteam”, who all seem to be competing with each other over who can come up with a whole new dimension of untapped grooves and package it into brisk one to two-minute listens.
I was first aware of the Connecticut rapper and producer Ivvys with his winter release “Hadda Go”, a flip of the classic Ethereal and Playboi Carti collab “iknowuknow” with Moh Barreta and Andretti Makk, a high-intensity track that sees the two rappers rapidly trade bars through a chaotic barrage of percussion elements and sound effects that only make their one-liners stand out. It left me puzzled at how this can even work in the first place, so I dove through his SoundCloud for more. A slew of singles have been released since then, most of them solely featuring Ivvys. “Bikini” is another standout, with his scratchy voice hitting the grooves of the beat as an apoplectic alarm sounding 808s rattle through the track.
Maajins has his fair share of stepteam beats, a favorite is the eye-opening self-produced “blatts” which sees him transforming the profound MIKE track “Stop Worry” into a marching band anthem with constant hi-hats and some Jersey Club inspired elements, makes you believe he’s at the front conducting it all.
The third “#stepteam” member Sxprano is mostly known for his new wave Gucci Mane inspired trap beats that the emerging rapper Ian raps over, yet produces his fair share of these glitchy beats. His work on Xhulooo’s and 1600j’s “step sisters” off the great “sstepSKI” tape is a reconstruction of Future’s classic “real sisters”. Sxprano’s erratic drum patterns full of quiet yet thumping kicks, and a bell at the end of every few bars, making the simple one-liners from the expressive Xhulooo and laidback 1600j come off as a stroke of genius.
“#Stepteam’s” future is full of more innovative beats that will break your mind and have you rethink what music can sound like.