WATCH THE THRONE

According to Washington, DC's Jaeychino, DMV street rap has undergone a subtle shift in vibe in 2022. Much of the scene's output has maintained a recognizably roving, syncopated flow and intense production style over the past half decade. But over the past two years, his rising stars have distanced themselves from the drill next door “free car music,” embracing moody soundscapes and reflective lyricism. “That free car shit was just draining,” the 19-year-old said an interviewer earlier this year. His recent string of mixtapes—alongside the efforts of local peers like Nino Paid and KP Skywalka—provides a cathartic alternative, treating 16 like exercises in trauma release. While there is a lot of memory WATCH THE THRONE, Jaeychino's latest release, his song is also rooted in the present, juxtaposing painful memories against a cosmic stream of scenes from his everyday life. It makes time fold in on itself, scattering fragments of memory in stuttering, distorted output.

As usual, Jaeychino works mostly with local talent, sourcing most of his beats from DC's SJR and subsidiary sxprano. Their collective influences are more diverse than ever. The instrumentals in “GOD INTERLUDE” and “WOODY” return to IcedancerBladee of the era, buffeting sleek cloud rap samples with slick, kaleidoscopic filters. In the previous song, the squeaky synth short-circuits as Jaeychino reflects on his turbulent teenage years and the hope his recent success brings. there's a sense of detachment in his delivery, as if he hasn't worked it all out yet. He's torn when he discovers his father stole from him, but the trauma is quickly revealed amid flashbacks of cheating on food delivery apps in high school and checking view counts on song uploads. Where do you start when there is so much to confess and everything is still so raw?

Jaeychino's lyrics are usually depressing, but WATCH THE THRONEHis moments of levity are his most exciting parts. In “Iloveindy 2”, one of his own many odes to his girlfriend, rides high to a psychedelic beat by New York-based duo Evilgiane and Braindeadd, driving aimlessly around their city when sudden feelings of love hit him. Translucent clouds of subbass and triumphant, brassy melodies would feel right at home in a Nintendo DS era Pokemon movie soundtrack. “Bridgerton Sex Scene,” a track about hooking up while the Netflix show of the same name plays in the background, is so weirdly specific you'd think Jaeychino jumped into the booth and recapped his entire morning. It's like he's the Frank O'Hara of the DMV, breaking out lunchtime poem in his spare time.

With their emphasis on flickering, crushed textures, most of the beats add a cybernetic touch to Jaeychino's subtle raps. But the pair of sampler songs online, which released source material from the Cranberries and Imogen Heap, are disappointingly safe outliers. He did the basement really need another “Just for now” flip; His experiments in fusing subgenres of street rap with influences from SoundCloud's inner corners are much more exciting, like the club flirtations with digicore and IDM on “Armed & Dangerous.” As he weaves together pieces of a stressful adolescence, he carves a new, more experimental path through the DC area's edgy car sound. Jaeychino is still coming into his own, but the throne of the DMV underground is totally in his sights.