RXK Nephew and Harry Fraud shine as a duo as soon as the subject of steak arises. On “Hunnid on the Dresser,” a spotlight from their new mixtape Life After Neph, the Rochester rapper solely will get one diss off earlier than he’s distracted by a slab of scorching meat; quickly, he segues right into a cooking session so intense that his wrist snaps off like Factor within the Addams Household. Life After Neph is filled with the rapper’s oddball popular culture references and weirdo power, but it surely additionally displays his throw-everything-at-the-wall launch technique. (Test his YouTube channel: Likelihood is he dropped a brand new music at this time, and that it doesn’t sound very similar to yesterday’s). Measured subtlety was an asset on The Onederful Nephew, his June tape with DJ Impolite One, however right here the beats really feel overly polished. As a substitute of providing ample grooves for Neph to settle into, the manufacturing on Life After Neph is simply too slippery for his signature flows to get traction.

Fraud is a flexible collaborator; he has made a profession curling his samples to suit round totally different artistic companions’ kinds. At his greatest, Fraud’s average contact accentuates Neph’s booming register, preserving the beat regular below his tumbling verses. Neph sounds 12 toes tall over the eerie refrain of “How I’m Coming”; he’s equally in command on the mellower “RX Directions.” The atmospheric “Hunnid on the Dresser” is prime actual property for Neph to take a extra conversational strategy to the chaotic one-liners that made “American Tterroristt” a traditional (who else threatens Santa with a hammer?) As he’s began to develop into the boss of his personal life, Neph says he’s tempering the unstable Slitherman persona that drove his early output. On Life After Neph, he raps about innocuous topics like vacation reductions and bowling over sparkly loops, straightforward jazz flips, and even the interpolated melody of a Tears for Fears hit.

The album’s spotlight is the ultimate observe, “Prime Chef Neph.” Over ’80s-style synths outfitted with 808 claps, a sweating Neph calls on his lady to assist him whip up one other feast of epic proportions: Tomahawk steak, a shark-filled seafood boil, and a loaded baked potato for good measure. The manufacturing kicks up the punchiness of the sooner lower “Dub 4 U”; you may really feel Neph catching his stride as he fires away on issues of style. There’s even a glimpse of his affinity for conspiracy theories: “Shut up, your meals was 3D-printed.”