Lidly Teams Up With American Rapper Kubes: “Not Human?”

There are an abundance of hip-hop beatmakers in Japan right now. Lidly belongs in the upper echelon of these types, creating instrumental music that is not just the result of somebody listening to a few J. Dilla CDs and calling it enough of an education. His stuff is far more abstract, far stranger than the typically jazzy stuff clogging up Bandcamp. Yet, up until now, Lidly has shared one thing in common with those sorts – nobody seems to rap over his music. Well, he can cross that one off now.

“Not Human?” finds a Lidly beat being joined by some bars, courtesy of Tennessee rapper Kubes. The instrumental itself is a jittery construction, a series of twinkling bells and chimes that at times sound like the coin sound from the Mario games. It is an all mixed up bit of music from Lidly, and would have been an interesting listen by itself. Yet Kubes tries to rap over it, changing everything. It can be a bit muddled at times…the bit about the pool table, for one…but Kubes’ flow fits in well among the disjointed production, and proves Lidly can make music open to being rhymed over. Listen below.