“You can’t do this shit alone, you gon’ need a crew,” Saba posits on Pivot Gang’s “Mortal Kombat,” a sentiment as true in life as it is in rap. Just consult one of the many lettered rap fraternities: A$AP, YBN, OMB, etc. Saba has been building with his crew since 2012; rappers Joseph Chilliams, MFn Melo, and Frsh Waters and in-house producers daedaePIVOT and SqueakPIVOT, who are joined unofficially by multi-instrumentalist Daoud. On the cover for You Can’t Sit With Us, the crew’s debut album and first project in five years, they gather before a portrait of Pivot co-founder John Walt, who was killed in 2017. “Since *NSYNC broke up, I figured it’s our turn,” Chilliams raps, following Brockhampton’s lead. This project has the warmth of lifelong friends finding comfort in each other’s presence after tragedy.
Not that the music feels weighty or somber: The Pivot Gang album is full of good-natured, low-stakes sparring among playmates. Chicago compatriots and YCA alums Smino, Jean Deaux, Mick Jenkins, and Femdot tag along, as well as other like-minded out-of-towners Kari Faux, Benjamin Earl Turner, Sylvan LaCue. Together, they sound less like a crew than a like a bunch of friends at the lunch table trying to out-rap each other for fun.
Pivot is an ensemble with a pyramid structure: at the top is, obviously, Saba, not just the best rapper in the group but among the best rappers in his age bracket. He is the only one who appears on every song. Almost as active are Chilliams, Melo, and Frsh Waters. Chilliams’ similes don’t always track, but they’re hilarious nonetheless (“Sleeping on me is like fucking an assassin”); Melo sounds like a schoolteacher in search of the most perfectly lucid phrasing; Waters is the crew’s inner monologue, popping in to offer guidance or real talk (On “Bible”: I’m them thoughts when you get smoked up/Feel the world up on your shoulder”). The foundation of their outfit is the producer trio—daedae, Squeak, and Daoud—who, frankly, make everyone sound better. Things all clicked into place for Saba on CARE FOR ME, in part because of the gorgeous soundbeds that perfectly complemented his intricate, carefully spoken raps. Here, they build upon that sound, one they’ve been honing with loosies for the last few months.
Saba, for his part, is still projecting the messages of CARE FOR ME, sneaking lyrics like “I don’t wanna waste time, I don’t wanna Facetime/I wanna be where you are,” or “They might comment on your social/But they can’t love you, they don't know you” into his verses. But his album was a searing personal statement dedicated to a lost love one; he opens himself up to pleasure here. With amusement comes the leeway to attempt gnarlier, and also sillier, maneuvers in a safe space. His “Mortal Kombat” raps are lacernating in their precision, while his “Hero” flows lean heavily into intoned cadences that curl up at the ends before dissipating.
The best crew albums establish dynasties or rebuild them, spotlight minor members who make star turns, or are representative of a hyper specific rap epoch. You Can’t Sit With Us doesn’t do any of these things, but it avoids ephemerality because Pivot Gang have invested so much love and care into it. Everything about the album is thoughtfully put together, and it is at points funny, charming, playful, and pretty. Most of all, they move as a unit, not as Saba and Friends. “Carnival,” the only posse cut to feature all the Pivot rappers, presents each member, along with Benjamin Earl Turner and Sylvan LaCue, seamlessly as if on a conveyor belt. When they’re weaving in and out with Femdot in tow on “mathematics,” it’s like watching a highly skilled double dutch team; it’s probably inconsequential in the grander scheme, yet you can’t help but be awed by the synchronicity and timing.
