Last year, I wrote quite a bit about the Massachusetts-based hip-hop duo DJ Manipulator and Louie Gonz — and as you may recall, the duo has frequently collaborated with each other throughout the years; however, 2014’s Private Stock was the duo’s first as a cohesive unit. Their 2017 sophomore effort The Loops was released as a bold reintroduction to the act, whose sound draws from golden era hip-hop — with sincerity and soulfulness.
Earlier this year, DJ Manipulator released The Synth Tape, an album that featured tweeter and woofer rocking instrumentals and beats, including “ARP,” a track centered around a minimalist production featuring shimmering and fluttering synths, thumping beats. Now, you might remember that DJ Manipulator, Louie Gonz and Los Angeles-based emcee Blu teamed up on the soulful and gritty street banger “This Sound” off Louie Gonz’s and Manipulator’s sophomore effort — and “ARP Revisited,” a reworking of the original track on The Synth Tape finds the trio teaming up again to similar, attention-grabbing effect. In fact, the track finds Blu and Louie Gonz effortlessly trading gritty, street shit verses and bars over a murky and menacing production featuring brief flashes of sunny synths.
