ZOOMERCORE
harvey_dug - Nu Grip
Harvey_dug’s debut album Nu Grip is a marriage between one man’s SP 404 Sx and another’s stream of conscious poetry. Foreground static crackles like a lead vocal, abstract clatters of percussion keep time, and twirling samples act as the main instrumental pallet of Nu Grip. The tape’s often-used stretched-out dance hall samples give the album the feeling of a broken down carnival ride. One can imagine the bedroom that this album occupies - dozens of scribbled notebooks on the bed, stacks of LPs to sample from on the floor, and an ashtray mounting a pile of spliffs. The standout songs from the tape are “truluv4ever,” a poetic, upbeat abstract hip hop answer to a love song, and “for my brother, jonk ft. Doof” a raw, melancholic tune with some of the best rapping on the album. Harvey_dug’s debut album is an exciting moment the recent resurgence of abstract hip hop and jazz rap, lead by artists like Earl Sweatshirt, MIKE, and Standing on the Corner. With Nu Grip, harvey_dug has established themselves as an duo to watch, and we’re excited to see what the group does next.