Already halfway into the 2010s, underground rap has gone through a number of seismic stylistic movements. A term like “cloud rap” that was an early marker for rappers like Kitty, Main Attrakionz, and even A$AP Rocky already feels dated from a bygone era of 2011. “Hipster rap,” a similarly small moment used to describe artists as varied as Theophilus London and Das Racist, was quickly forgotten as rappers fought back against the term or simply reinvented themselves to avoid such genre pigeonholing. Cities Aviv, a rapper from Memphis, has never received such a snappy descriptor for his rap-but-not-quite-always-rap, style. Not embraced by the fashion world enough to be “hipster rap” and not within the correct Tumblr reblog circles to fall into “cloud rap,” he’s existed within his own post-internet lane.
Back in 2011 when Cities Aviv started getting press his music was chiller and more laconic, and lacked the distorted bite that has since taken over his music. A review here of Cities Aviv’s previous release commented that Black Pleasures: “sounds it's angling for a deal with Pendu Sounds or Captured Tracks.” His latest album Come to Life shows that this particular post-punk angularity remains in Cities Aviv’s sonic DNA, as the album continues to embrace projective shouting and aggressive production. The opening track starts with harsh distortion makes it is clear that this abrasive aesthetic has only grown more ingrained within Cities Aviv’s music over the last couple of years.
The first single from Come to Life, “URL IRL”, keeps Cities Aviv’s distorted shouts, but the 1980s styled bounce of the track, makes it one of the most immediate songs since his Modest Mouse-sampling track “Float On”. The upfront nature of his vocals fits closer to his live show, which even with mellower material of 2011’s Digital Lows was done with the intensity of rock set, far from just a rapper just rapping over their own pre-recorded vocals. The rest of the album isn’t as straightforward as "URL IRL", but at this point Cities Aviv isn’t a performer on record interested in so recognizable hooks; instead, he enjoys hearing how electronics mash with his own vocals. So even when there's an old dial-up modem on “(View 180) Picture Me Gone” or a drum'n'bass break on “Vibrations”, nothing sounds out of place. That references to old internet technology and titles like “URL IRL” and “CTL1” shows Cities Aviv connecting digital dots and hashing through how it affects everyday life.
In 2012 a rapper, more interested in other forms of vocal projections beyond rapping—let’s just ignore Waka Flocka Flame and DMX for a second—might have been perplexing. But in 2014 the rest of the rap community has finally caught up. The industrial clash and shout-rap of Kanye West’s Yeezus was quickly cited to have come from Death Grips, but that overlooked a cluster of lesser-known rappers that’ve spent the last few years infusing hardcore punk with rap ideas. Performers like B L A C K I E, Antwon, Abdu Ali (who appears on the track here “CTL1”, talking about his own personal meaning of album title’s “come to life”), and Cities Aviv all have been melding a very B L A C K P U N K aesthetic within rap trappings. They’re rappers only in so far as a being black dude with a microphone and a backing track must be a rapper, instead of maybe being a starting point for their own original style of music. Come to Life shows Cities Aviv putting post-punk, Oneontrix Point Never-like samples (“Realms”), and even a little bit of rap into one holistically new blend.
