Armand Hammer "Haram" (Album Stream)

Haram is a mercurial collaboration between incendiary rap duo Armand Hammer, and living legend The Alchemist. For the first time ELUCID and billy woods have crafted an album with a single producer and the result is extraordinary. With their unmatched penchant for stirring imagery and incisive storytelling, the two rappers dive into an ocean of Alchemist’s creation: warmly inviting on the surface, black and bone-crushingly cold at depth. Haram is a collection of the profane and the pure; a reminder that that which is forbidden is also sacrosanct. The artists are joined by their friends and fellow travelers on this journey. Kayana’s golden voice upps the wattage on “Black Sunlight,” while Fielded’s sultry alto gets chopped and screwed on “Aubergine”. Earl Sweatshirt makes a sun-soaked appearance, while Curly Castro and Amani mix like ice and salt on Brooklyn sidewalks and Quelle Chris, as always, finds a pocket all his own. Still, there is a natural rapport that belies the NY-to-LA-and-back nature of the project, allowing Haram to be more than the sum of its parts, however impressive those parts may be. This isn’t just the genre’s most insistent contemporary voices paired with arguably its best producer. This is when you buy a beautiful house only to discover, hidden behind a heavy bookcase, a stairway twisting up and away into the darkness. Dig in...

Haram cassettes are also available now...

Armand Hammer "Parafin" (Album Stream)

"A distillate, by it’s very nature, is purified, clearer than that which is left in it’s wake. When we talk of finding the heart of something, what to make of the rest, of everything that is flayed away searching for an imagined greater truth. Then comes Victor Frankenstein in the boneyard, with a Tesla coil and a wooden wagon with a creaky wheel. Looking for freshly turned earth. Chances are they’re only a few feet deep, it’s cheap work, and they get lazy, same as anyone. The spade sinks right in, the ground is soft. It’s been a wet spell. The townspeople will be raging soon, but tonight, they sleep. Backwoodz Studioz will be releasing Paraffin, the new project from Armand Hammer (ELUCID & billy woods), on August 30th. Paraffin is less a follow up to 2017’s Rome than an un-guided tour through the labyrinths beneath it. Paraffin features production from Messiah Musik, ELUCID, Ohbliv, August Fanon, Willie Green and Kenny Segal, along with a blistering feature from Sketch185. The digital version of the album differs in certain ways from the vinyl, and makes for what we hope is a more expansive listen." Do yourself a favor, stream the Parafin album below now...

Armand Hammer "Rome" (Album Stream)

"An unsparing indictment of everything. A scratched CD-R ode to the crew of the last nuclear submarine. ROME, the new album by ELUCID and billy woods as ARMAND HAMMER, is the sound of rats in the walls, fleeing. Terrifying, hilarious, chaotic, sleek, violent, implacable, ROME is a feast of words, a stylistic demolition derby over-production both layered and spare. Those tracks come courtesy of August Fanon, Messiah Musik, Kenny Segal, JPEGMAFIA, Fresh Kils and High Priest (Antipop), while appearances by Quelle Chris, Mach Hommy, Denmark Vessey and Curly Castro add to an already potent mix. ELUCID and woods are two of the most vital voices in the genre- as distinct as they are complimentary- at the height of their powers." Something different, stream it below...

Armand Hammer "Furtive Movements" (Album Stream)

"Billy Woods & Elucid are Armand Hammer, the NYC rap duo whose 2013 debut, "RACE MUSIC," made waves with its blend of aggressive, experimental production and uncompromising lyrics. Their new EP, Furtive Movements, is both a continuation of, and departure from, their previous work. Fragmented musings of an imagined diaspora. Brooklyn bullshit in the shadow of construction scaffolding. Summer’s dog days set to the hiss of dusty vinyl. Drums wobbling drunkenly over ethereal loops. Elucid and woods hold down the lyrics with only one guest, the effusive Curly Castro, but Furtive Movements features an array of production from Blockhead, Von Pea of Tanya Morgan, Messiah Musik, Steel Tipped Dove and Elucid himself. This is not an addendum to RACE MUSIC but a fully realized project in its own right with its own distinct aesthetic, mood and perspective. The EP will be available digitally and limited-edition transparent orange vinyl." Listen.