Gaunt and forbidding, the 19-year-old LA rapperBonesfits somewhere between the dizzy lean-love ofYung Lean'sSad Boys and lugubrious menace-trudge ofLil Ugly Mane, with a sharply defined video aesthetic crafted by the same camcorder hesayshe's used since age seven, when he was living in Howell, Michigan.Garbageis at least Bones'eighth releasesince 2012, distributed through hisSESHcrew. The production is wide-reaching and, with almost every track, super compelling—the acoustic guitar that opens the ramblingly titled "YouCanTellALotAboutAManByTheNeckOfHisShirt" had me double-taking iTunes. For the most part, the sound is grimy and decidedly underground, but "MyFavoriteColorIsRain" reminds me of modern day melodramatic-singing-chorus Eminem, just harder. (The final track is a nod to8 Mile.) Speaking of singing tracks, the du-ragged Minnesota teenagerSpooky Blackfeatures on "IfYouHadAZuneIHateYou," making for a natural highlight that also includes a few bars of screamed hardcore.
Spooky Black is the fourth white rap/R&B artist I've referenced, which feels inevitable; Bones' first album was calledWhite Rapper. You could draw upYelawolf, too, with Bones' rural background and fondness for Three 6, orLakutiswith his sort of wild-eyed unhingedness, or evenBubba Sparxxxwith that acoustic guitar track—the point, I think, isn't so much the race as it the sort of uphill battle and hungriness to prove yourself within the genre. Right now, Bones might be doing that better than anyone.
Download:Bones,Garbage(.zip)
