Chicago-based hip-hop duo Angry Blackmen — Quentin Branch and Brian Warren — features members, who individually spent their time stretching their creative arms and tapping into different sounds for a couple of years, before Warren suggested that they collaborate together as a duo towards the end of 2016.
Branch and Warren exploded into the underground and experimental hip-hop scenes with their debut single “OK!,” a track that showcased the pair’s adept ability to spit bars. Their second single “Riot!” was a near-complete shift in sound that remained tethered to the sonic foundation that they’d first built.
Their debut EP, 2019’s Talkshit! was released to attention and acclaim, eventually catching the attention of Philadelphia-based progressive label Deathbomb Arc, known for its avant and eclectic roster featuring releases from Death Grips, JPEGMAFIA, JOVM mainstays clipping., Julia Holter, U.S. Girls and others. Deathbomb Arc went on to release the duo’s full-length debut, 2020’s HEADSHOTS! and its follow-up EP, 2021’S REALITY!, both of which saw the duo expanding their range sonically while further honing their craft.
The Chicago-based duo’s highly anticipated 11-song Formants-produced sophomore album The Legend of ABM was released earlier this year through Deathbomb Arc. The album sees the pair spinning tales of depression, existentialism, self-reflection, tragedy and survival that are raw, unvarnished, lived-in and downright ugly paired with soundscapes that evoke our brutally hellish, uneasy, near apocalyptic — and possibly fascistic — present. The result: Two wildly talented emcees feeding off each other and providing a passionate, yet introspective look at the world at large, with their raw, pathos-infused lyrics forcefully educating the listener on our increasingly dystopian, fucked up, broken world — from the eyes, hearts and minds of young, rightfully rage-fueled, Black men.
The album, which clocks in at about 30 minutes, thematically is a coming of age narrative centered around young Black men navigating America, inspired by Richard Matheson’s 1954 post-apocalyptic horror novel I Am Legend. “For us, this album is kinda like our villain origin story, a bedtime story and introduction to those who have and haven’t heard of us yet. Black men have historically been the boogie men of America, so I think it’s fitting that we tell our own legend.”
In the lead-up to The Legend of ABM‘s release, I wrote about three singles:
- “Stanley Kubrick,” a song that featured Branch’s and Warren’s dizzyingly rapid fire, dexterous, braggadocio-filled bars and verses over a minimalist, industrial-like production that paired skittering trap beats with stormy and uneasy bursts of feedback and distortion. Sonically, “Stanley Kubrick” seamlessly meshed trap with the slow-burning and creeping dread of There Existed an Addiction to Blood-era clipping.‘
- “Sabotage” a song that featured Branch and Warren trading rapid fire, dexterous, densely worded yet introspective and deeply personal bars and verses describing their love/hate relationship with modern, American capitalism and their struggles with mental health and the struggle to survive in a mad, mad, mad world. The song sees its emcees vacillating between righteous outrage and heart wrenching despair over a glitchy and woozy production featuring tweeter and woofer rattling 808, skittering beats and noisy arpeggiated synth glitch.
- “Dead Men Tell No Lies,” a brooding track featuring industrial clang and clatter, menacing and buzzing synths paired with skittering beats. And in this uneasy, hellscape Angry Blackmen’s Branch and Warren, along with rising New Jersey-based emcee Fatboi Sharif share trade hauntingly nihilistic verses, which both describes the existential hopelessness, despair and rage of living in a brutally inequitable, corrupt, racist society while adding upon the album’s overall themes of nihilism, tragedy and survival.
The Chicago-based duo announced a fall tour that includes an October 9, 2024 stop at The Knitting Factory at Baker Falls. (Word on the street is that The Knitting Factory has been shut down for noise complaints, so it’s highly likely that this date will be changing venues. So be on the lookout about that in the upcoming weeks and months. The tour also includes a two European festival circuit dates. Check out the tour and ticket information below.
Angry Blackmen Tour Dates:
(New Dates in Bold)
Fri. July 19 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival (tix)
Fri. July 19 – Chicago, IL @ Cobra Lounge (Official Pitchfork Festival After Show) (tix)
Sun. Sep. 15 – Oakland, CA @ Thee Stork Club (tix)
Mon. Sep. 16 – Los Angeles, CA @ Moroccan Lounge (tix)
Wed. Sep. 25 – Seattle, WA @ Sunset Tavern (tix)
Thu. Sep. 26 – Portland, OR @ Showbar (tix)
Thu. Oct. 3 – Atlanta, GA @ 529 (tix)
Tue. Oct. 8 – Silver Spring, MD @ The Quarry House (tix)
Wed. Oct. 9 – New York, NY @ The Knitting Factory (tix)
Thu. Oct. 10 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s (tix)
Fri. Oct. 11 – Boston, MA @ Daily Operation
Sat. Aug. 3 – Stavanger, NO @ Munkehagen Festival (info)
Fri. Nov. 8 – Utrecht, NL @ Le Guess Who? (tix)
Purchase The Legend of ABM (Vinyl/Digital)
Stream The Legend of ABM