Kue The Vandal – The Snuff Tape (2014)

Artist: Kue The Vandal

Album: The Snuff Tape

Tracklisting:

1. Eye For An Eye
2. My Brother’s Keeper
3. Filth
4. Runnin’
5. Affiliated (Ft. Cain & Sleep)
6. Pistolet
7. Black Mask
8. G.O.O.N

Note:

Kue The Vandal released his latest EP, The Snuff Tape, a couple of weeks ago and I have given it multiple listens not only for the purposes of this review, but also for my own personal enjoyment.   Kue The Vandal has that grimy delivery and he brings a certain tone of despair and depravity that is on display for all to see on this release.   But there’s also this sense that Kue, when his back is against the wall, is not going to just disappear quietly into the sunset.  He is more likely to come out with his guns blazing.

On Filth,  Dope Antelope delivers a certain wickedness with a beat that sounds it was manufactured in a horror movie filmed in a mental hospital.  There is an eerie vocal tone that hovers in the background as though it was haunting the listener.  It literally leaves prickles upon your spine.   Meanwhile Kue does his dirt like this:

…that’s some ill shit, my better traits came from my drunken father / That’s why I guzzle down, think like it’s runnin’ water / I’ll probably pass it down the ladder to my son and daughter / At Alcoholics Anonymous yellin’ ‘Fuck A Sponsor’ / Sickness inside of me is just a part of me now / I’m losing my mind and there ain’t no talking me down / When I’m on the prowl with the 40 cal with a dirty towel to wipe my bloody hands when I’m finished murking you nerdy clowns

Affiliated brings in The Fraternity cohorts in the form of 2-Man Cypher.  This track has more of a pure hip hop feel.   Dope Antelope rings the alarm with the horns and precise Biggie samples on the chorus.  The three emcees’ styles blend really well together on this joint.   Sleep brings the crisp diction, Cain has that raspy delivery, and Kue The Vandal seemingly fuses both styles into his own.   This track is real similar to something that something that might have actually hit the radio back in the 90s.

Pistolet and Black Mask are tracks that serve as quick hitters demonstrating Kue’s abilities.  There’s no choruses on either of the tracks and rely mainly upon Kue’s bars.  And he can more than hold how own when it comes to verbals.   The mode on Pistolet is particularly confrontational as you can tell by the following brief snippet:

Lion in a concrete jungle, the rhyming predator / Severing big headed emcees across America / Genocide, line em’ up, point me in they direction / With one slice, a quick sixteen is the sharpened weapon

It’s not just Kue’s mentality that makes The Snuff Tape a great listen.   It’s that mentality paired with Dope Antelope’s productions which at some points seemed to be produced in the bowels of hell.   When these two unite there is a certain semblance of pain that is released in the songs.  Music is often a cathartic moment and that seems to be fitting terminology for this release.    It’s the type of music that raises the hair on your arms at some points.   Again, music that makes you feel something, any emotion, is the stuff that trumps the trivial drivel that the masses have become so comfortable with.  Listen to this track in your basement or cellar and let the darkness take hold…