Song You Need: Rabit’s cinematic chopped-and-screwed

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Not long after he made Houston his home, Rabit became entranced with chopped-and-screwed, the bewitching and psychedelic subgenre of hip-hop pioneered by DJ Screw. The sound has never been far from Rabit’s own music as an experimental producer and composer: his Bandcamp page collects an ongoing mixtape series created in tribute to Screw’s sound, but moments outside of this particular collection also reflect Rabit’s passionate appreciation.

One of those instances arrives on Rabit’s new album What Dreams May Come, released on Friday. “Georgia Boy - Instrumental” is a collaboration with Croww, a shadowy producer whose 2017 EP Prosethetics was composed entirely from a sample pack shared by Slipknot’s DJ. Here as well, Rabit and Croww are interested in unexpected journeys with surprising elements. The song’s engine is the interplay between the chopped-up drum loops ripped straight from Actress’s masterpiece Ghettoville and the funereal cello, its notes composing cinematic scenes worthy of Oliver Coates. Bubbling with unresolved tension, “Instrumental” keenly balances Rabit the chopped-and-screwed devotee with Rabit the artist. In spirit if not precisely in sound, he brings chopped-and-screwed back into the realm of the avant-garde.