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lojii & Swarvy – “due rent”

blame it on Patrick Glynn February 23, 2017
iojii-swarvey-top

Photo: Lendl Tellington

Disclaimer: I’m currently writing this while laying down on an air mattress in the living room of my friend’s apartment in a city I’ve never lived in before. Paying rent isn’t exactly the problem here so much as finding a job that will let me pay rent for my own place is. But I’ve still got bills to pay, and so do you, which is why I’m writing this.

Philly rapper lojii and LA producer Swarvy also have bills to pay (you see a common theme here) and they pay theirs through music — selling it and performing it. But paying rent being a black artist in America isn’t an easy task, which is what the duo’s upcoming project, DUE RENT, is about.

“This tape is a score to being a broke nxgga in AmeriKKKa (emphasis on the KKK),” lojii told us over email. “Full of dreams and hustlin’ to make ’em happen, but dealing with the everyday pressures of making ends meet, A.K.A trying to pay the rent.”

The duo shared the project’s opening and title track today. Organizing his thoughts over Swarvy’s looping, soulful and dusty production, lojii figures out any way to make his money, “whether it’s trappin’ or rappin’.” Either way, rent is due at the end of the month. The pair reminds me shades of an even dustier (if that’s possible) version of Madlib and Freddie Gibbs, who dropped one of the best projects of the decade with Piñata.

Speaking of the end of the month, that’s when lojii and Swarvy’s DUE RENT arrives: March 31. Just in time to help them keep the landlord at bay. The first part of DUE RENT will arrive “in the next few weeks,” then the full project will be available on March 31 both digitally and on cassette via Fresh Selects.

Listen to “due rent” below.