The first 30 seconds of The Devil Is Not Welcome Here is a trip. I love when an album has a really strong first few moments, especially when I don't really know what to expect or have any prior experience with the artist. The opener, MoMMA, begins with I guess a fairly tribal sounding rhythm, accompanied by Nikko's loud and distorted rapping, before the thickest bass sound kicks in. It's hard to put into words how amped this got me, but that bass drop gave me the same feeling that Tyler the Creator's New Magic Wand gave me the first time I heard it.
I think a big part of why it works is because of how strong Nikko Miles' flow is. The rhymes, the slight looseness of the rhythm, and the amount of energy they bring, it's enough to get anyone excited. What follows is a really solid hip hop track that slowly builds in intensity while not adding too much extra in terms of instrumentation. A lot is done with not very much and it's excellent.
Things get a little gloomier with l e g n A n A. It's less sparse in its instrumentation, the vocals are slightly affected, and this sad and spooky electric piano drives the song. The intensity is the same, though, and the lyrics are good too. We plunge further into the abyss with no fly lis+, with its down pitched vocals and boom bap beat, I wouldn't go as far as to call it weird but three tracks in I'm impressed with the variety and experimentation on display.
My favourite track here is heLLuSin8, the fourth track. It's got this broken sounding guitar sound and trap beat, while Nikko self deprecates and finds solace in drugs and hallucination. I can't press upon you enough how good the performance is here. The rapping is the best on the whole album, but there's also these moment where Nikko sort of sings and it sounds properly unhinged. It's fucking sick.
The last two tracks didn't quite hit me in the same way, it's gotta be said. They're both good, mind. u n o has that big fat bass, which Nikko meets with angry and misanthropic lyrics, performed brilliantly again. I think it just doesn't feel quite as creative as the tracks that came before it, as good as it is. reeByouK opens with Nikko shouting "God take the motherfucking wheel" and I like that, of course. It's a little lighter in vibe than the last couple tracks, and again, it's definitely good. These are all good songs. It just doesn't quite excite me in the same way as those earlier songs.
Those aren't really criticisms though. Nikko Miles served two really good songs preceded by four absolute bangers, so it's an easy recommendation. They're definitely an artist I wanna check out more of.