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LA-based rapper Open Mike Eagle and producer Kenny Segal are both staples of the underground rap universe. They've known each other for decades, and they've worked together many times over the years. Last year, OME released his album Neighborhood Gods Unlimited, and Segal produced lead single "contraband (the plug has bags of me)." Segal really thrives when he's making full-length collaborations with rappers like billy woods or K-The-I??? Today, we get the very welcome news that Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal have made an entire collaborative LP.
Later this summer. Open Mike Eagle and Kenny Segal will release Doomed! — or, if you want the full title, DOOMED!: Rap Songs About A Relationship That Ends In Every Possible Universe. Over Segal's production, Mike unpacks the end of a relationship, something that he seems to do on record a lot. Here's OME's explanation of how the album came to be:
In recent years, Kenny made it very clear that he wasn’t trying to keep having one or two beats on my projects; he wanted to build something. I was able to convince him to let me use a couple beats for Neighborhood Gods Unlimited with the caveat that we would focus on our thing next. Then my relationship fell apart right when we started working, and it was like, "Perfect, I have a lot to say about this."
Backwoodz, billy woods' label, will release the album, and woods himself appears on one track. Lead single "Unfinished Concrete Initials" is a collaboration with Hemlock Ernst, the rap alter-ego of Future Islands frontman Samuel T. Herring. Back in 2019, Herring and Segal made the full Hemlock Ernst album Back To The House together, and it really impressed me. On "Unfinished Concrete Initials," Open Mike Eagle is as densely, charmingly conversational as ever, and Herring really catches the spirit. Below, check out that song and the Doomed! tracklist.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Out To Lunch"
02 "Streets Of Rage: Public Arguments Edition" (feat. Gothic Tropic)
03 "DOOMED!"
04 "Unfinished Concrete Initials" (feat. Hemlock Ernst)
05 "Don’t Go Look (Battleworld Focus Prayer)"
06 "She Swear I’m Colorblind" (feat. billy woods)
07 "Science Fiction/Fantasy"
08 "The Irredeemable Magic Man"
09 "The Many Hustles Of My Lonely Time Traveling Uncle"
10 "Trying To Remember What I Aimed At"
11 "Shrödinger’s Green Room (There But Uninvited)"
12 "It Happens in Every Universe (interlude)"
13 "Sweetheart Jail"
14 "Infinity War Spoliers"
15 "Watching A Movie Called Freedom By Myself"
Doomed! is out 8/14 and Backwoodz, with physical distribution through Rhymesayers/Secretly. Pre-order it here.
Alex Steed
English (US) · 