Clams casino 32 levels

“The mind is so complex when you’re based/32 levels/Welcome to my world,” Lil B ad-libbed on “I’m God.” Upon it’s release in , “I’m God” was largely received as an internet curio, its submerged Imogen Heap sample, unhurried beat and Lil B’s impressionistic, stream of consciousness rapping cutting a contrast against the crisper sounds of rap’s mainstream. Seven years later, the Clams Casino-produced track sounds more like a blueprint for modern rap production rather than an outlier. It’s hard to imagine the aesthetics of artists like A$AP Rocky, Vince Staples, and the Weeknd without the New Jersey producer’s murky, atmospheric beats, which made a beeline toward rap’s center following the release of “I’m God.” Following years of high-profile production work and a series of three well-regarded beat tapes, Clams has unveiled his debut album, 32 Levels, on which he stakes a claim to his now much-imitated sound.

32 Levels has very distinct A and B-sides, which split cleanly among the album’s 12 tracks. The A-side consists of six satisfying rap songs, each of which leverage different facets of Clams’ sound. Essentially, the first half of the record feels like a Lil B/Clams Casino album: the BasedGod graces four of these six tracks and the album opens with his signature “yessssss” ad lib. Clams Casino and Lil B were instrumental in each others’ rise, and these songs serve as a reminder that both artists still do their best work together. Here Lil B gets to test-drive the latest generation of Clams Casino beats: tracks that are more structurally robust if just as foggy on the surface. Lil B rises to the occasion, showing up in a way we don’t often get to hear. He tightens up his improvisational style to suit the mood, while staying loose enough to sink into the open spaces where Clams’ instrumentals exhale.

Like Clams, Lil B has exerted an outsized influence on his peers, and “Be Somebody” feels like an acknowledgement of that fact. Here, the far-more-famous A$AP Rocky shares space with Lil B over a lurching instrumental constructed from chopped-up vocal fragments, explosion sound effects, and breathy synths. “Witness,” meanwhile, is a darker, more-muscular update to “I’m God”; the song finds Lil B wandering through a funhouse of warped tones, slipping on his hardened, street persona for the occasion. Rounding out the A side are the instrumental “Skull”—a pan flute and piano-heavy slice of Temple of Doom trap—as well as the Vince Staples-featuring “All Nite.” While its creation pre-dates Summertime ’06, “All Nite” suits that album’s swampy, claustrophobic sound even better than the two Clams beats that made the cut. Here Clams crafts a foreboding sonic canopy—echoing bird chirps, hollow synths, a menacing low-end that bubbles up from below the track—while Staples delivers a string of threats with characteristically breathless abandon, looking beyond Long Beach with lines like, “My people ready for war.” It’s no wonder the pair continued working together, given that “All Nite" stands among the best songs of either artists' career.