On paper, Polo Perks seems like all gimmick. When we last reported on the sample-heavy East Coast emcee, he was interpolating Alex G’s track “Gretel” as a follow up to his Punk Goes Drill+** mixtape, a collection of original songs interpolating aughts alt-rock staples by artists like The Killers, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Foo Fighters, and Snow Patrol. But if you listen to any of these tracks, Perks elevates unexpected samples to an artform—it isn’t easy flipping such emotive material for upbeat experiments in drill.
Which leads us to his latest project, A Dog’s Chance, which he’s undertaken with lowend icon AyooLii and cloud-rap innovator FearDorian. Beyond their strong sample game (see their take on “Paper Planes”), the trio enlist fellow genre-blender Nick Rattigan of Current Joys (with an on-brand feature where the Surf Curse vocalist can be heard singing about watching Videodrome) and blog-emo forefather Sam Ray of Teen Suicide on a couple tracks (the latter being named after Ray’s ambient Ricky Eat Acid project), seamlessly merging their surprisingly not-disparate worlds. Elsewhere, Alicia Keys and turn-of-the-millennium slowcore band Carissa’s Wierd both appear on the tracklist (as track titles, not collaborators), in addition to a shoutout to former NBA shooting guard Tony Snell. It may feel like a typical half hour spent in a dorm room, but as an album it’s a bit surreal.
With the project out today, Polo Perks, AyooLii, and FearDorian shared a playlist of additional songs and artists they took inspiration from as the record came together, with Midwest emo band Everyone Asked About You and anti-folk songwriter Jeffrey Lewis making the cut. Sure, why not!
Check it out below, and stream A Dog’s Chance here.
INDIVIDUAL PICKS
AyooLii
“Patchmade” – xaviersobased
“Pick and Choose” – Certified Trapper
“Jack Tapp” – Maz G & AyooLii
FearDorian
“Jungle” – AyooLii
“Sometimes Memory Fails Me Sometimes“ – Everyone Asked About You
“Petty Wap” – Dean Blunt
“On and Off” – Blair
“Fire Mate” – Maz G
Polo Perks
“You Love Me” – Kimya Dawson
“Roll Bus Roll” – Jeffery Lewis
“The River” – Jeffery Lewis & Diane Cluck
“8 Million Stories” – A Tribe Called Quest
“Sometimes I Rhyme Slow” – Nice and Smooth
