Cakes da Killa knows there’s nothing more lethal than a deep cut swiftly dealt. The Brooklyn rapper is a master of unrelenting flows and skewering affronts, made all the more ruthless by his razor’s-edge humor. On the new EP Muvaland, Cakes teams up with New York producer Proper Villains, whose vigorous house beats don’t rival Cakes’ intensity so much as egg him on. The music is pumping, primed for Cakes’ motor-mouthed takedowns. His endless digs—at squares, lesser MCs, and unworthy beaus—are served at top speed, but it’s Cakes’ saucy charm that makes them land just right.
Muvaland clocks in at a trim 14 minutes, including two clipped interludes. Cakes’ takes are so spicy that the first song starts with a sizzle, a high hiss that precedes the spitfire sax licks, aluminum high-hats, and circular French touch bassline of “In Da House.” Cakes bounces through, asserting dominance in the art of playful insults. “How you never gettin’ fucked but keep a stick up your butt?” he asks. Forget kicking a man while he’s down—Cakes will dance all over the sucker.
“Don Dada” elevates Cakes’ knack for provocation. Easily Muvaland’s best track, it’s a turbocharged banger with the same ecstatic, scrappy energy as “212”-era Azealia Banks. Buoyed by Proper Villains’ crisp hip-house, Cakes growls, snarls, and snaps—and still manages to enunciate every sharpened consonant. He dethrones MCs with “flows softer than marshmallows and goose feathers” and razes skanks with the EP’s most memorable line: “All you dick riders on my body like vultures/You did it for the clout, I did it for the culture.” Filthy, joyful, and fearless, “Don Dada” captures every facet of Cakes’ style.
Hercules and Love Affair alum Nomi Ruiz joins for “ICU,” Muvaland’s most blissed-out offering, a late-night club cut that doubles as a mating call. Cakes rattles off dedications and instructions, as if beckoning a boy across the dancefloor. Ruiz plays wingman and jumps in on the insatiable hook: “Ooh baby don’t ya just stand there, I know you like what you see/Paws pressed all over my body.” The final line is a succession of “de dee dees” more satisfying than they have any right to be: In a record packed with syllables, these nonverbal ones communicate the most pleasure.
Muvaland came together in the first weeks of lockdown, when Cakes and Proper Villains found themselves in need of creative collaboration. Proper Villains supplied the beats, and Cakes laid down the entire EP in the span of one afternoon—a testament to the speed and precision of all Cakes’ records, as well as his arresting freestyles. Present circumstances are hardly ideal for club music, but Muvaland bangs on with searing beats and scalding verses. Cakes decks himself in pink lace and diamonds, tosses off the haters riding his ass “tighter than True Religions,” and becomes the only rapper to successfully rhyme “quarantine” with “guillotine.” It’s a 14-minute flex parade leading straight to the throne.
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