An amazing hip hop video was released on January 25. Set in the future, the video chronicles its hero’s journey through a desolate village and into the desert in a sci-fi western mix of Star Wars, Dune and A Fistful of Dollars. It’s got an elegant mise en scène. And then there’s the music. The voices of an enchanting women’s choir flow out as the bars of the letterbox slide open to reveal the scene: First we get a shot of the protagonist from behind, but as the camera slowly zooms in it twists around to reveal him in portrait; cue the boom bap beat as he lays down his rap. The man strolling leisurely as he spits his rhymes to such an emotional backdrop is none other than Denzel Curry; the song in question is “Walkin.”

The song and its video are another dramatic combination, similar to what he did with 2018’s “Clout Cobain.” Opening with boom bap and closing with trap, “Walkin” is the lead single off Curry’s upcoming album, Melt My Eyez See Your Future. Kal Banx, the song’s producer, sampled two bars from the chorus of “The Loving Touch,” a 1973 song by composer Keith Mansfield, to create a beat that synthesizes hip hop of the past and the present. We’re barely into 2022 but it seems we’ve already come face to face with one of the year’s best new hip hop tracks. That’s how good this song is.

If you’re going to discuss hip hop of the late 2010s to today, knowing Denzel Curry is a must. Born in Carol City, Florida, he first started rapping as early as sixth grade. He made his first mixtape while in middle school and released Nostalgic 64 (2013), his first album, while in high school, drawing the attention of the local underground scene. In that sense, he’s already a veteran rapper of 11 years, but his rap style and new albums still sound fresh, like those of up-and-coming rappers, because the energy in his releases, and the spell they put listeners under, are unparalleled.

Even his personality is compelling. He’s more interested in becoming a rock star than a rap star, and loves mosh pit^※ culture, yet he’s more serious about hip hop than anyone. His is a form of hip hop that isn’t tied down to any one sound, instead adopting a variety of influences, ranging from traditional hip hop to trap music, drum and bass, jazz and more. His rapping, too, has no need for improvement. As “Walkin” shows, he excels at rapping no matter the style of the beat—it’s solid, tight, and unhesitating. Not only does he perform well, but the lyrics are also tops: A harsh, hardcore choice of words zips by, loaded with poetic metaphor and analogy. Make no doubt about it—Curry is a fantastic lyricist.

Consider these lines: “I see the way the people get treated, it’s problematic / They ready to set us up for failure, it’s systematic / But when I felt it, my eyes melted / The selfish are constantly profitin’ off the helpless.” Curry emphasizes the way Black Americans have been treated throughout history with this powerful metaphor.

Curry has long grappled with depression and anger issues, and it’s had a serious impact on his creative work. He lacked the freedom to mix the genres he was influenced by in childhood into his hip hop or to break free of his emotional state and rap on other topics. But he says that he filled his fifth album, Melt My Eyez See Your Future, due out this year, with all the things he couldn’t say or do before. Denzel Curry’s albums never disappoint. If he really made this album with that much resolve … Well, maybe he’s about to drop a classic.

※mosh pit: a scene most typically found at rock concerts, where audience members engage in so-called slam dancing in front of the stage 

TRIVIA 

Announced collaborators for the new album so far include Rico Nasty, JPEGMAFIA, T-Pain, Slowthai, Kenny Beats, Thundercat and Robert Glasper. We can expect a good amount of experimentation with a diverse list of artists of differing styles and stances like that.