“The mind is so complex when you’re based/32 levels/Welcome to my world,” Lil B ad-libbed on “I’m God.” Upon it’s release in 2009, “I’m God” was largely received as an internet curio, its submerged Imogen Heap sample, unhurried beat and Lil B’s impressionistic, stream of consciousness rapping cutting a contrast against the crisper sounds of rap’s mainstream. Seven years later, the Clams Casino-produced track sounds more like a blueprint for modern rap production rather than an outlier. It’s hard to imagine the aesthetics of artists like A$AP Rocky, Vince Staples, and the Weeknd without the New Jersey producer’s murky, atmospheric beats, which made a beeline toward rap’s center following the release of “I’m God.” Following years of high-profile production work and a series of three well-regarded beat tapes, Clams has unveiled his debut album, 32 Levels, on which he stakes a claim to his now much-imitated sound.
32 Levels has very distinct A and B-sides, which split cleanly among the album’s 12 tracks. The A-side consists of six satisfying rap songs, each of which leverage different facets of Clams’ sound. Essentially, the first half of the record feels like a Lil B/Clams Casino album: the BasedGod graces four of these six tracks and the album opens with his signature “yessssss” ad lib. Clams Casino and Lil B were instrumental in each others’ rise, and these songs serve as a reminder that both artists still do their best work together. Here Lil B gets to test-drive the latest generation of Clams Casino beats: tracks that are more structurally robust if just as foggy on the surface. Lil B rises to the occasion, showing up in a way we don’t often get to hear. He tightens up his improvisational style to suit the mood, while staying loose enough to sink into the open spaces where Clams’ instrumentals exhale.
Like Clams, Lil B has exerted an outsized influence on his peers, and “Be Somebody” feels like an acknowledgement of that fact. Here, the far-more-famous A$AP Rocky shares space with Lil B over a lurching instrumental constructed from chopped-up vocal fragments, explosion sound effects, and breathy synths. “Witness,” meanwhile, is a darker, more-muscular update to “I’m God”; the song finds Lil B wandering through a funhouse of warped tones, slipping on his hardened, street persona for the occasion. Rounding out the A side are the instrumental “Skull”—a pan flute and piano-heavy slice of Temple of Doom trap—as well as the Vince Staples-featuring “All Nite.” While its creation pre-dates Summertime ’06, “All Nite” suits that album’s swampy, claustrophobic sound even better than the two Clams beats that made the cut. Here Clams crafts a foreboding sonic canopy—echoing bird chirps, hollow synths, a menacing low-end that bubbles up from below the track—while Staples delivers a string of threats with characteristically breathless abandon, looking beyond Long Beach with lines like, “My people ready for war.” It’s no wonder the pair continued working together, given that “All Nite" stands among the best songs of either artists' career.
While 32 Levels' A side is consistently stacked, side B is more of a mixed bag. Here, Clams shifts his focus to pop and R&B, inviting in a cast of guest vocalists to help push in a brighter, more radio-friendly direction. “Thanks to You,” featuring Sam Dew, is one of the more successful songs on the latter half: all gated synths and aqueous tones, it almost sounds like an outtake from Caribou’s Swim. “Back to You” is another highlight, a melancholy pop number that’s haunted by echo-laden shamisen plucks and spectral vocals. These songs are certainly serviceable, though not nearly as ambitious as the expansive tracks Clams produced for FKA twigs and the Weeknd, both of which drew from the same gloomy palette as his rap work.
Elsewhere on side B, the producer strays even further from his strengths. “Into the Fire,” a collaboration with Mikky Ekko, dispenses with the airy sonics of the pair’s previous collaborations in favor of a generic, synth-heavy pop sound. Future Islands’ Samuel T. Herring brings his gravelly baritone to “Ghost In A Kiss,” which feels a bit like Tom Waits singing over a skittering trap beat—not exactly the most harmonious pairing. Clams chooses to ride out on a high note with the instrumental “Blast,” a vocal sample-driven track that would have felt at home on any of his beat tapes and which rappers will be itching to jump on.
If 32 Levels makes one thing clear, it’s how much Clams Casino has grown as a producer and songwriter since his early days as a bedroom hobbyist. The biggest question that he now faces is what distinguishes him as an artist—not just from the "cloud rap” beatmakers who followed in his footsteps, but from big-name producers like Noah “40” Shebib and Metro Boomin who mine similar terrain. On 32 Levels, Clams approaches the question from two different angles. On the A side, we hear him staying in his lane and refining his craft, cutting back on samples in favor of instrumental recordings, denser arrangements and tighter compositions. On the B side, Clams looks beyond his comfort zone, pushing toward mainstream pop with mixed results. Versatility, it turns out, may not be Clams’ strong suit, though that’s hardly a problem; as the first half of 32 Levels demonstrates, there’s still plenty of room left for Clams Casino to grow into his own sound.
