Sy ShacklefordThere isn’t much out there about the rapper known as RIP Lux. He’s been described as an Eastern Europe-based hip-hop artist who combines politically-charged boom-bap with cyberpunk themes. His 2024 album, “The Quezon City Broadcast”, was laced with such themes. To add to the mystery of RIP Lux, this album wasn’t widely distributed either: There’s a Bandcamp page for it with no individual links and the album is only available on YouTube and, even then, in its entirety all on one full video. Though this may have been deliberate, there was much static added to the production to make it sound like a radio mix, with the songs being an uneven mixture of both snippets and full songs just shy of a 31-minute combined length:
Starting with an ominous intro, the first official song “EdgeRunnerz” then takes the center stage. There’s also a telephone sample with a voice on the other end stating, “We’re sorry, the future you’ve selected has just been canceled.” The lyrics are certainly dystopian, making references to H.P. Lovecraft on “Silver Medal” while Lux exalts himself as a future entity that the rest of the world has yet to catch up to. “Shadows In Vienna” is of sufficient length and structure to be a single: It has a gloss to its production that the previous tracks don’t, the vocals sound cleaner, and has scratched in dialogue samples from HBO’s “True Detective”.
“Stupid Human Suit” has dark lo-fi piano keys driving the beat and the lyrics are both braggadocious and stream-of-consciousness, comparing the human body to a wearable suit. “Cordyceps” begins with a Nas vocal sample and the production is ‘90s boom-bap from the basement. “Crimson Tide” is a gloomy snippet and could’ve benefitted from having an additional thirty seconds. “Yellow Parenti” has a clear trap influence, with its production being somewhat reminiscent of Bone Crusher’s “Never Scared”.
On “When The Empire Falls”, Lux declared that “the revolution will not be incentivized”. The production has a RZA-influence to it: Looping a vintage sample with some dusty snares over it. From the title, “One Day The Day Won’t Come” has a certain pessimism about it. Once the piano keys and the lyrics drop, it becomes clear that this is a loose crime narrative. There are female vocals on the hook, but the singer is unidentified. “Maradona” sounds like something better suited for an emcee like CRIMEAPPLE given the lyrical topic and the song title. On “Hit 1 To Teach 100” is eerie, to say the least, as though something menacing from it is inevitable.
The final fourth of the album begins with “Masquerade”, where Lux waxes about the lengths that people go to for the sake of concealment. “My Work Is Not Yet Done” has an unidentified rapper helming the entire verse, not Lux. On “Public Enemy”, Lux goes on for exactly a minute railing against his “toxic metropolis” and on “A Crumb”, he boasts that the last album he bought was the “The Carter II”. On MF DOOM’s “Vaudeville Villain”, the concept of future visitor was clear. “The Quezon City Broadcast” follows something similar, but it’s incomplete. Also, there’s no press release, no album credits for listeners to identify the guest features or even who manned the production. The album’s cover appears to depict Sonny from “I, Robot” being crucified, adding to its depiction of an unpleasant future. If RIP Lux felt compelled to aim higher with this album, he’d have scored higher.