Torii MacAdams is white like Bill Nye.
The best parties in Highland Park are at the Nature Boyz’ house. As Alexander Spit wrote, “Their house parties kill because their house parties look, smell and feel like a house party that kills should.” Impromptu low stakes dice games, beer cans, and weed smoke overflow from the narrow porch onto the gravelly front walkway. Dudes in backwards caps and Darkthrone t-shirts and ladies with skinhead hairdos and tattooed legs line narrow hallways. Hardcore punk and trap raps split time on the stereo — Waka Flocka is the natural bridge between the two not-so-distant poles. This is where Andre Martel, Nature Boy and rapper of “Shaq-Fu,” resides.
Shaq-Fu was a terrible game –and it still is– but that didn’t stop former video game tester Andre Martel from naming a song after it. Martel, formerly Himself the Majestic, is best known for his collaborations with fellow Nature Boy and round mound of vag pound Antwon, particularly “Werk 4 Me,” from Antwon’s EP In Dark Denim. Last October, Martel and producer Froskees released Shadowrunners, an album full of hyperbright beats and Diplomats-style stuntin’. The ever-improving Martel sounds his best over fast-paced, left-field instrumentals; Froskees built the grimy “Shaq-Fu” on a foundation of harp and chimes, and Andres slams it like the song’s seven foot namesake. If you’re around Highland Park, catch Andres in a pair of Pumas “white like Bill Nye,” listening to Sicko Mobb, chilling. His debut album, His Majesty Obscured, is out the 21st.
