While we haven’t gotten a new LP from very-experimental hip-hop duo Themselves in a decade and a half, both of the project’s members (emcee Doseone and producer Jel) have kept their respective Bandcamp pages plenty stocked. Additionally, the former has kept busy along with rapper Mestizo with their A7PHA project, which returns today with a new pair of singles that tap into the late-’00s peak of Dose and Jel’s former label Anticon. The fierce six-minute posse cut “Many Headed” features fellow label-cofounder (and Dose’s cLOUDDEAD bandmate) WHY? as well as Buck 65 and Aesop Rock, who both appeared on Themselves’ 2009 mixtape The Free Houdini alongside WHY?’s Yoni Wolf.
On the single, the rappers (also including West Coast emcee Self Jupiter) take turns bodying Meaty Ogre’s old-school hip-hop beat marked by distorted guitar riffs—much more in line with vintage Anticon than the forward-looking raps A7PHA’s been churning out the past four years. The release also comes paired with a slightly truncated version (sorry, Yoni) as well as the even more sprawling B-side “King Me,” which feels more in line with the A7PHA brand.
Check out the whole EP below.
