His music is so far removed from the East Coast/West Coast style of hip-hop that with each subsequent release, Oklahoma rappers are forging their own coast — Red Dirt Coast, if you will.
After spinning this album, I’m pretty sure Worm could be the mayor of the Red Dirt Coast.
And why not? With their lo-fi, DIY sound, tracks like “Pretty Little Liars (The Mack)” and “Nike” prove Worm achieves excellent results with limited resources. His laid-back flow and lush sampling work hard to compensate for the four-track demo sound. In that respect, it’s actually kinda punk rock.
The Casio-esque tones of “Car Crash” and “Thinking Out L.O.U.D.” are mesmerizing, rolling and swirling in the headphones. This effect is mastered with “Purple Rain” — not a Prince cover, but an attempt to hit on a girl on the first day of school. A high-pitched voice repeats “purple rain” over and over, to intensely trippy results. It’s the standout track on an album filled with them. —Louis Fowler
This article appears in May 1-7, 2013.