The only things The Scythe are strict about is 1. hating phony shit; 2. flipping the underground into the ULTRAGROUND; and 3. being a members-only rap supergroup that no one can fuck with (unless you wanna get sliced).

The eight-plus-person group details these commandments to me over a 45-minute phone call that has me dying. A Pokédex of characters, The Scythe includes not only the rappers (Denzel Curry, FERG, Bktherula, TiaCorine, and Key Nyata) but also executive producers, iloveit! and BeautifulMvn, and a stacked list of other producers (Oogie Mane, Ilykimchi, Swaggy Ono, BNYX, among others).

“Key being a mob boss, Denzel being a fucking goofball and knowing how to fucking rap, FERG being reserved and wise... me and [Tia] are the same but we’re not,” Bktherula says, listing what everyone’s bringing to the table, “It feels good to be in a group with everyone.”

Fitting for the group of outsized personalities, the idea for the collective was born after a comedy club visit. Denzel Curry burst in the door of Beautifulmvn’s home-studio with the concept of a seven-project rollout. “I was telling niggas gonna make seven tapes and everyone was looking at me crazy like, bruh shut yo ass up,” Curry recalls. To be clear, The Scythe is not “Denzel Curry and the Scythe,” as some publications have been calling them. “The Scythe, is all of us, and we all came together like Voltron to do this. I’m not bigger than nobody in this clique. Nobody’s bigger than me. We’re all on the same page, and we all work together to make the shit happen.”

Everyone in The Scythe is a titan of their own respective rap niche. Denzel Curry is a king of the underground; FERG holds the most mainstream success with not only A$AP Mob but a successful solo career; TiaCorine just finished a versatile album trilogy; and Bktherula is still riding the high of “BIG FEELING.” Key Nyata, Curry’s business partner, is also a rising figure in Seattle. Together, they make a multi-head organism that’s one-of-one in the current rap landscape, rooted in longstanding collaboration and deep friendship.

Between comedy shows, rage rooms, drunken nights at the studio, and almost-fights at music video sets, The Scythe created their first album, Strictly 4 The Scythe, out now.

Over a recent video call — with members scattered in Los Angeles, Philly, and Atlanta — FERG, Curry, Bktherula, TiaCorine, Key Nyata, BNYX, and executive producers Beautifulmvn and iloveit!, explained the making of Strictly 4 The Scythe.

BeautifulMvn: Us three [Denzel Curry, ILoveit!, and Beautifulmvn] were like the nucleus of how it was made. I was in L.A. working on a project, and I hit Denzel one day and I told him to come over to the studio. And he slid, played me a bunch of old-school tapes. We talked about ideas on what would potentially be on his project. Then an idea of [creating a supergroup] gets thrown around. Then Austin [iloveit!] and Denzel go to a comedy show. On the way back he was like, there was something there.

Denzel Curry: Their [RAIDER KLAN] logo is a reaper. Our [ULTRAGROUND] logo is a reaper. I was like, we gotta do seven tapes. The first tape was a beat tape and we were gonna feature certain artists. MIKE WiLL Made-It it was like, the beats are hard, but I wanna hear people rapping on them.

Bktherula: We were in Atlanta and you [Denzel] were telling me it was still gonna be a beat tape, and you was playing it and I was like, nah can u load this up, and that was “LIT EFFECT.” I was like, “bro we gotta go ahead and hop on this.” This isn’t something we can just leave as a beat tape.

Curry: Eventually it started. I was showing [them] how it would look, and that’s how it came about. When Strictly 4 The Scythe happened, it was supposed to be [Beautifulmvn and iloveit!]'s tape, and I had a song on there, FERG had a verse on there and then “THE SCYTHE” was the only song that made the cut. FERG wasn’t on it yet and I wasn't on it yet.

Bktherula: We’re just in the studio all the time cooling it. We put our heads together and we actually wanna make music together. We’re together in all aspects, friends and collaborators.

BNYX: Once I understood what The Scythe was supposed to feel like I was in. It didn’t feel trendy. It felt intentional.

Key Nyata: The song that I was most excited to be on was “PHONY” with Juicy J and FERG. It's probably my best verse.

TiaCorine: That one did eat real bad.

Nyata: I learned a lot from [Juicy J], you know, just listening to him growing. I just really like how the song came out with me, him, and FERG being on there and us having the history that we all have. It was just dope to see it all come together so perfectly in one song.

FERG: Key is smooth ass nigga. He’s like the Barry White of rap. Very, very warm-spirited. He wants to light the candles and sip the wines with his verses. And I can get with that.

ILoveit!: I would say Juicy’s process, seeing him in the studio, man, it was incredible. You would think, like, oh, he’s old. Like, this man is very diligent. He sat down with the engineer, the engineer had a whole checklist. He moved to a different level of professionalism.

Nyata: Juicy J is like a childhood hero for me, and I’m probably the only one out of everybody on this call that talked to him. It’s just cool to really be like, on the song. It’s like my childhood self would be like, damn, nigga. It was just important to me.

Bktherula: That shit was lit, like, literally the “LIT EFFECT.” We pulled up just on some gang, mob type, shit. I remember I had left my chain at home. Then Denzel was, like, I got you. You can wear my chain. He pulled out this diamond ULTRAGROUND chain. I’m like, yo, I feel like I've been promoted.

TiaCorine: This one bitch was in the bathroom talking about, “Idk why I’m in this bum ass video.” I'm washing my hands and I said, “Excuse me, bum ass video? Watch your fucking mouth before I beat your ass in the bathroom.” And then she DM’ed me the next day and apologized to me. Mind you, nothing in this video is bummy.

Bktherula: Everybody was there. The whole squad was there and everyone was just eating Slim Jims all day. I broke my pinky, but I was still lit. I came back the next day with a splint. The camera just followed us around like in reality TV.

Key Nyata: I debuted my haircut at that motherfucker. [The Scythe] is kind of like a pop out moment for me. So.. I think a lot of people like it. Cause I look different, you know what I'm saying? I had dreadlocks for 15 years. I was also a little heavier, so this is like a renewal. A rebirth.

Curry: It was me, James Austin, and we're all at my house and Tia is in town and she's working on her CORINIAN album. So I was like, aye, we're gonna be recording it here. So she starts coming to my house and she was like, “I brought my friend with me.” And I ain’t know him like that. So I was just like, nah, bruh…

TiaCorine: I had a thotiana with me.

Curry: I told her she had to leave him home and she was like, “Nah, I don't want him around my stuff.” Soon as you said that, I said, “So you expect to bring him around my shit?” So she was like, “Aight, I’m not coming.” We ended up going to James’s studio and ended up doing the verse for “Hoopty.” And we said liquor flowing.

Tia: The energy in the room was crazy. We got to the end of my second verse: “I ain’t gay, but I can still take your wifey.” And then he was like, “Say that shit with some gangster on it.”

Curry: Say that shit like Riley Freeman.

Tia: I had a skirt on, and I grabbed my imaginary nuts. We was in there for two hours jumping up and down sweating, and that’s how we made the song.

FERG: It’s more so hearing people out, seeing what the vibe is, and kind of agreeing. When you by yourself, you just have your own vision and you go with whatever you’re on at the time. But, like, I could have an idea and then we have to discuss it amongst everybody to see if it works for everybody. You have to be more accountable. You just can’t move on your doli.

Curry: Yeah. The whole thing is, we’re already dealing with a fucking segregated ass industry of rappers, whether the fan segregates you, or the podcast niggas segregate you, or the fucking industry itself segregates you when they tell you that you’re better than this artist and shit.

Well, shit, bitch. Like, if we gonna aid competition, iron sharpens iron, and that's a word to James [BeautifulMvn]. So we adopted that mentality with each other, and we ended up making something that’s cohesive and a great body of work that the whole world can enjoy. Most people would be like, “We ain't asked for this.” Well, you're getting it, bitch, because I’m sick of negativity. That's how I feel. I’d rather rob a nigga that’s trying to fuck me over in this industry than rob my fellow brother, you feel me? I'm on some “one nation” shit right now.

TiaCorine: I was easy because I’m a great rapper, so we be busting their balls. She’s [Bktherula] so creative and you never know what she’s going to say. I think that it stuns everybody. And then, a lot of people aren’t in that pocket. And so when we’re in there, we just take over.

Bktherula: We’ve known each other since like 15, 14. And then we had followed each other. The fact that we're here now…

TiaCorine: It’s crazy. It makes so much sense. I remember [Bktherula] being in North Carolina, me being Atlanta, and being like, “Yo, boy, you got to come to the A.” I’m like, “Yo, I gotta come to North Carolina.” We’ve been fucking with each for mad long. And we can hang with the guys. They really can’t hang with us. I think we push them in a different direction. We stand on business.

Bktherula: It’s good to have female energy around. For us it’s good to have their male energy around too though. There’s time where we’ll be popping it and they’re like, just chill. We learn from them in certain aspects, emotionally, musically. We all bring a specific energy to the group. It's really just us, our personalities.

TiaCorine: They don’t expect us to be cute and freaky all the time. We really got a voice in this and it feels good.

[Denzel and I] act a lot alike. Today, we’re matching, but this isn’t the first time we’ve done it. We finish each other's sentences. We say the same thing. We feel the same way. I'm literally Denzel if he had a vagina. Because me and him can also go head to head on stuff. We have interviews where we say the same thing at the same time. He gets my jokes.

Bktherula: It's like the same soul, different body type shit.

Curry: Tia. “Hoopty.”

Bktherula: I agree.

TiaCorine: Somebody else was on the song and I was like, “Nah I’m getting on this shit.”

Bktherula: I love the end of “MUTT THAT BIH,” it’s such a vibe. The way I was gagged. Every time it comes on I’m acting like it’s new.

FERG: My favorite hook is “LIT EFFECT” from Bk and also Tia on “THE SCYTHE.”

Bktherula: I was gagged at everybody in their own way. Everything was curated and so good. We all did our thing on that whole album. I feel bad picking my favorite thing cause everything was my favorite. From the production to the studio sessions, from the verses, and the hooks. My favorite thing is that we did this together.