Friendship is an interesting aspect of life, you make a connection with someone and suddenly you care about the entire existence of another person, due to common ground. Sometimes you lose connection, whether it be through distance, business, or in the case of Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats in 2018, when Kenny Beats gave a beat that he was already set to have a song on, to rapper Young Thug. Beef ensued and lasted for roughly a year. Like how many friendships eventually reform and return, so did this one. Denzel had saw the Freddie Gibbs’ guest appearance on Kenny’s YouTube series “The Cave”, and was inspired to reach out to him reconcile their differences.
On August 2nd, 2019, Denzel joined Kenny for the first season finale of The Cave. Their chemistry was outstanding, with them cracking jokes in the studio, sharing videos and having a wacky, immaculate vibe overall. This bond culminated with Denzel freestyling over the beat Kenny made for him, as is custom for The Cave. They had such a good time that they decided to go into the studio and make an EP. 72 hours of studio time later and Unlocked was born. I generally do not give this much backstory before getting into a project, but I would argue the heart of Unlocked is the chemistry between Denzel and the beats Kenny made for him.
After a distorted, campy, and slightly cartoony Age of Turmoil sample that almost sounds like a classic superhero sampling MF DOOM clip as the intro, Kenny’s production fires on all cylinders on the aptly titled Track 01. The EP title is spouted a few times in a glitchy, robotic yet unsure manner, representing the ominous and futuristic sound of much of the project. A basic but fitting boom bap drum accompanies a sinister sounding synth loop. Zel jumps onto the track right after the sample finishes and it introduces him. He finishes the sample’s sentence and it’s like he’s jumping out onto a stage, with the crowd roaring. His verse isn’t long but the short length of the track (not even one and half minutes) combined with how scattershot it is with its ideas makes complete sense given the personalities and circumstances at play mentioned earlier.
This scattershot nature pervades through the entire project, with the track immediately following, Take_it_Back_v2, opening with Denzel delivering an aggressive, hungry flow reminiscent of early Eminem. The track is accompanied by a squeaky, futuristic synth loop and metallic booming drums that pop in from time to time. The beat on this phase of the track sounds like something off of legendary experimental rapper and producer El-P’s debut solo album, Fantastic Damage. I love futuristic sounding production in general, plus I love El-P, so it hits hard. I say this phase of the track, because like many tracks here, this one is multi phased. After a second of radio static, a slower and more sinister metallic synth melody is added to the track, also the drums get much more bass heavy. Denzel is now more distorted and aggressive than before. The track has gone from hardcore hip hop to borderline horrocore and it is glorious.
Now that the eclectic and wacky nature of the project has been thoroughly established, I would like to touch on what I consider to be a couple of the best uses of it. The first of these is Pyro (leak 2019). The beat on this one is masterful. It is lead by these echoey, futuristic bell type synths, again, very El-P. Just like on his freestyle on The Cave, Zel knows exactly what he’s doing with this beat. He jumps onto the track, firing aggressively and passionately delivered punchlines. His first line on the track might be my favorite on the EP, since it represents Zel’s hip hop knowledge well, while also being cheeky in the best way, where confidently spits,
“My bitch bad like battle rappers that make albums
With no outcome”.
I adore the “bad” double entendre used here. It is insanely clever and the way it’s delivered reminds me of the energy he presented in the freestyle. After he delivers a good few punchlines in the same ballpark of enjoyment, the track ends with chipmunk vocals that scream over the beat
“I told you, that you can’t fuck with this!”
and I agree, insanely good track.
The other major highlight for me is the again aptly titled Track07. After a quaint, sample heavy boom bap intro we lead into the track proper which I can only describe as a gauntlet of different production ideas, including this intro. The beat after the intro has Zel rapping over a jazzy beat with a boom bap drum and a slightly spooky keyboard loop, like you’re in a foggy hip hop graveyard with ghosts surrounding you. I enjoy it a ton, and elements of it are retained in the second half of the track, which again, is completely different from the first. This second half is started by a fighting game “ROUND 2” sound effect and it is lovely. What’s mainly added is a thundercat type bass loop that adds a funky element to the beat. Like the ghosts mentioned earleir are now chasing you, dancing at your fear. The track has the outro led into by a short sample. The bulk of said outro is Denzel and Kenny in the studio having fun basically, kind of like the whole project. The funny part about this track is that on the muisc lyric site Genius, it doesn’t have a single verse or hook listed. Just an intro, a bridge and an outro are shown. It just shows how much convention this EP lacks and represents the environment it was created in.
I should probably touch on the only remotely weak track on the project, So.Incredible.pkg. It is not bad by any means, it has a bouncy, slightly funky beat on it, with its heavy baseline. It also has these reverby psychedelic synths on it that give it an airy, almost dreamy feeling. Zel also delivers an intense hardcore flow over it as he has been for most of the project. The biggest issue is that it is the longest track on the entire EP, yet also the most static production-wise. Zel also doesn’t change his flow much. It’s an above average hardcore hip hop track on an EP full of unique ideas.
Thankfully, the Unlocked ends on a high note, with a very hungry closer, ‘Cosmic’.m4a. It opens with these fuzzed out desert like guitars, quickly leading into Zel’s verse. His verse is flow-wise as aggressive and hungry as the rest of the project, but also fun with the punchlines. The first stretch is absolutely incredible, kicked off with this stretch of punchlines that goes
“Drip, hop, born from the crackpot
This is for the infants, the haves, and the have-nots
Meet us at the trap spot so you can be an astronaut
Thi-This will be the biggest leap that you ever hop” .
These lyrics are campy, hard, and intricate all at once. It just showcases the talent that Denzel has, and is able to do the incredible beats that Kenny produced justice. The best part is Kenny knew Zel would deliver, after the earlier mentioned episode of The Cave. After Denzel spits for his life on the rest of the track, the beat runs for a few seconds before a beautiful piano sample, and a reference to the opening sample close out the EP, it is beautiful. They wrapped it in a nice bow.
Besides the fact that the longest track on this thing is also the most static and overall worst, I truly enjoyed Unlocked. You can really hear how far the friendship between Denzel Curry and Kenny Beats has grown since they reunited, given the myriad of ideas that Kenny implements on the production, knowing with confidence that his good friend Denzel Curry can rap over them in his own special way.
8/10
