By Gary Suarez in Interviews — Jun 5, 2024

VIDEO: ShrapKnel's PremRock On 'Nobody Planning To Leave'

The Backwoodz Studioz rapper stops by Radio Free Cabbages at Brooklyn's Newtown Radio.

CABBAGES heads know who PremRock is and what he does. The Brooklyn-based rapper and Backwoodz Studioz signee has been regularly featured in this newsletter and on the podcast. And now, with a new album Nobody Planning To Leave from his duo ShrapKnel dropping this Friday, June 7, we were proud to have had him as our inaugural guest earlier this week on Radio Free Cabbages at Newtown Radio.

PremRock stopped by the semi-subterranean Bushwick studio to talk about his creative dynamic with Curly Castro, the logistics of working on an album with Controller 7, and other related topics.

Watch the video interview exclusively on CABBAGES' YouTube channel.

Machinedrum, 3FOR82 (buy it / stream it)

Whether making beats for Azealia Banks or de/reconstructing formats on his own projects, Machinedrum regularly reveals an askew yet always transfixing view of hip-hop. As was the case with 2020's A View Of U, which offered standout features from Father and Freddie Gibbs, 3FOR82 maintains that collaborative spirit with several rappers and singers in tow. Opening with aja monet's poetic profundities on the immersive and shimmering "ORACLE," the 12 song set flits between moods and rhythms in a manner that shows both his range and his reach. That encompasses 2-step garage warbles with DUCKWORTH ("ILIKEU") and frenetic breaks with Miami talent Rozet ("RISE"), as well as beautifully blissed out drum n' bass with superstar Tinashe ("ZOOM"). Underachievers spitter AKTHESAVIOR and Deniro Farrar split introspective verses over augmented piano loops on "HEAL," while deem spencer slyly eases into the beat-switched juke of "BLESSD."

RXKNEPHEW, Till I'm Dead 2 (buy it / stream it)

The ceaselessly prolific and profane RXKNEPHEW drops so often that even his fans are bound to miss a few. Coming off last month's absolutely unhinged mixtape THIS ALBUM IS TERRORISM with Christ Dillinger and DJ Smokey, Till I'm Dead 2 sounds deceptively conventional by comparison. Working once more with his preferred producer BrainStorm, the relentless rapper comes as close as ever to that line on this sequel to their 2023 project. Yet even though there's nothing quite as rambunctiously bonkers as "American Tterroristt" here, his raw energy and opinionated improvisations appeal on "Walmart" and the rave-adjacent "Proud Of Me." Clubland lullaby "My Money" shares space with ambient trap confessional "Heartless & Relentless" and sleazy junglist chune "High5 (Sacrifice U)."