Denzel Curry - The ultimate rapper

It's not the last of his mixtapes, and arguably not even the first if we count the even shorter and more amateurish Curry Wuz Here (also from 2011, though it surfaced years later), but King Remembered marks a turning point because it catches the attention of fellow artist Markese "SpaceGhostPurrp" Wright, who brings him into his Raider Klan, a Carol City collective featuring dozens of names from the local underground, which alongside Odd Future and ASAP Mob defined a new way of making hip-hop, tied to the sounds developed by the Southern school, the third tradition after the more famous and celebrated east-coast and west-coast ones.

With the following mixtape King Of The Mischievous South Vol. 1 Underground Tape 1996 (2012), it's the aesthetic of the productions, even more than the technique, that grows bolder: credit goes to SpaceGhostPurrp's productions, decidedly hallucinated and warping, unpredictable and unsettling as they move between dream and nightmare.

It's these productions that drag the tracklist toward a chaotic horrorcore-southern sound on "Headcrack!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 96," a spectral minimalism on "Phantazm 96!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and, above all, they deliver the cursed nursery rhyme of "TWISTIN'" (feat. Lil Ugly Mane).

In SpaceGhostPurrp there's a drive to reinterpret Memphis rap in the sickest, most psychotic way possible, even at the cost of turning it into a deformed magma like "Raider Klan Phonk": it's a style that would later be labeled cloud-rap, which in his case ties back to the revival of southern-hip-hop but also incorporates ideas of its own drawn from witch house and vaporwave.

Denzel Curry's rap starts moving with more agility, comfortable over varied beats that nonetheless steal the attention, putting the emcee and the various guests at the service of SpaceGhostPurrp's work. Even though the credit doesn't belong to the man behind the mic, King Of The Mischievous makes Curry a name that draws interest from Odd Future artists, including Earl Sweatshirt, already on fans' radar following the mixtape "Earl" (2010).

To close out his time with the Raider Klan comes Strictly For My R.V.I.D.X.R.Z (2012), which references in its title and cover art Tupac Shakur, whom the rapper also draws on stylistically here. It's a mixtape that pairs SpaceGhostPurrp's productions, this time less daring, with a drift toward melancholy and more relaxed tempos. This stylistic shift foreshadows the end of the Raider Klan and, at the same time, paves the way for Denzel Curry's solo career. The underground period ideally comes to a close with the release of "Dark & Violent," the first single of his solo career, dating back to late 2012: a track split in two as the title suggests, serving as an appetizer for what's about to come. The dark mixtape Mental Vendetta (with Lofty305, from 2012), while intriguing in its aggressive and obsessive style, feels instead like a separate chapter in the discography.

From nostalgia to memes: Nostalgic 64, "Ultimate" and Imperial

The 46 minutes of Nostalgic 64 (2013) sum up everything heard during the underground period, the meeting point between Denzel Curry's love for the typical sound of southern-hip-hop, particularly the Outkast of "Aquemini," and a new way of working through those ideas that sounds like a Memphis rap revival merged with the dreamlike, psychedelic tendencies of cloud-rap and the obsessive violence of trap, arriving at a hybrid sometimes labeled punk-rap.

The anthem "Zone 3," which refers to the area of Florida where his hometown Carol City sits, is the prototype of a hard-hitting track he'll replicate many times over in his career (here in "Talk That Shit" and "Benz"), a beat driven by the iconic Roland TR-808 with sub-bass in abundance and lyrics that use obsessive repetition as an additional rhythmic element.

But Nostalgic 64 is much more than that, and the following track “Parents” is a showcase of flow over a production that blends vintage sounds with vocal doubling, while the lyrics become more narrative. The closing “A Day In The Life Of Denzel Curry, Pt. 2” even recalls the r’n’b/soul productions of Kanye West. The impression is that Curry is working on several albums at once, and indeed the inclusion of the already-known “Dark & Violent” (ft. J.K. the Reaper and Nell), dual and shape-shifting within itself, feels entirely natural.

There's also room for horrorcore elements on “Mystical Virus, Pt. 3: The Scream” (ft. Lil Ugly Mane and Mike G), as well as moments closer to hardcore hip-hop such as “Widescreen” and “Like Me” (ft. Steven A. Clark), the latter even reflective in tone.

On the near-title track “N64”, things arrive at a futuristic synthesis of hallucinated, frantic southern trap, thanks to the dense, creative production of POSHstronaut & Nurі.

Lyrically, “N64” is also a pivotal moment in the development of a style packed with pop-culture references, blended with bars more typically tied to ego-trip and braggadocio territory. So it happens that the opening hook name-drops Pokemon, Slayer and Tupac: