UK hip hop is, in a way, as big as it ever has been; grime, UK drill and afroswing all birthing truly global stars and hits. Yet the broader scene itself – ‘scene’ in terms of a broad community of artists developing on an established canon – has felt, if not stale, then something approaching that; like a few days old slice of bread that’s fine, like completely edible and safe, but hardly memorable.
Not that US hip hop hasn’t faced the same problem, the exciting stars of that ‘scene’ snatched up by major labels, locked into rigid, creatively stifling release schedules and thus zapped of much of the creative dynamism that made them exciting in the first place. What the US has maintained through, is a teeming underground; dozens of regional pockets, all sonically unique in different ways, pushing forward new sounds that filter horizontally across scenes, but also vertically into more mass and viral culture.
Fimiguerrero, Len & Lancey Foux have all identified this in a way – or at least, fervently defend the spaces they’ve been carving out in the UK underground in their careers thus far. And these spaces are distinct, the three of them playing at the fringes of noisy, low-end-blown-out rage, and the psychedelic, mass-appeal cloud rap of Travis Scott, Yeat and their many imitators and clones. Yet while those too sit, again, uncomfortably in that aforementioned major label sonic malaise (Yeat, somewhat successfully combining both genre strands in his 2024 album 2093, with interesting sonic results, but not quite as convincing in it’s attempts at expressing a totally authentic, hedonistic nihilism; there’s only so much coolness a Splendour in the Grass (RIP) headliner can give off, inherently), CONGLOMERATE, a collaborative record between all three of Fimiguerrero, Len & Lancey Foux, is the sound of a gauntlet thrown on behalf of the UK scene.
Released independently through Fimiguerrero’s label Lizzy Records, it’s all three rapper’s best work to date. Their chemistry is undeniable; trading verses, punchlines and memorable hooks, CONGLOMERATE is a totally enveloping listen, both Redbull and dissociative at the same time. The beats feel like detailed artifacts, tossed brazenly straight into a furnace; mixed so loud they feel designed to be played out of cheap wired earbuds yet so packed with ideas and creative flourishes that their intentionality can’t be ignored.
Rhythmically shapeshifting and unpredictable, CONGLOMERATE is a product of its widely used genre influences. Jerk is a big one – popular across certain US regional scenes, but also amongst newer players in London’s scene. On ‘Ankle Lock’, Milwaukee bounce lures you in with a steady, head-bopping intro, before exploding into a titanic, bass-boosted trap beat for the chorus. The track ‘After Life’ is doing a million things at once – Nigerian cruise with its starting pattern and log drum bass, then flipping into a Brazilian funk bridge. Anything’s on the table and it’s all about that pull, almost giddily danceable for a hip-hop record.
It’s 2024, so rage is at the center, of course. CONGLOMERATE justifies the most optimistic claims of that hip-hop subgenre as the noise pop of today. Ever wondered what a flamenco rage track would sound like? ‘Spanish Guitar’ is that, and it’s better than you think, all finger-picked notes dancing around 808s that curl and snap like playful snakes, noise purring softly around the edge. On ‘Midas Touch’, though, we’re completely on fire – layered and increasingly heightening synths swirling with dystopian awe, like if Vangelis was an 18 year old with Ableton.
Like the seal on its cover art, Fimiguerrero, Len & Lancey Foux have stamped something with CONGLOMERATE – a statement, done with an assured and cheeky coolness. But never one without a pulse, because it’s that urgent, totally current, happening now feeling that gives CONGLOMERATE its allure; that on-the-edge feeling that this night could be – that every night, could be – the last one ever. Make it count.
Words by Lindsay Riley