Tosten Burks writes his own bylines.
Haven’t seen The WolfPack yet, but I imagine it plays a lot like a ShowYouSuck album. Chicago’s second best art-rapper, the straight-edge product of PS2 and punk, was allowed out of his house while growing up in the west-side suburbs, but he’s still caught up in the zeitgeist. A pop culture almanac donning cut-off denim and a Treated crown whose natural reflex, as streets watch and bridges burn, is to press play. Roseanne raised him. Final Fantasy 7 taught him to be a man.
Real name Clinton Sandifer (alternately: Rad God, Dude Bro, King of Pizza) is prepping the next installment in his OneManPizzaParty series while his Nick Catchdubs single builds, but in the meantime he’s assembled a collection of loosies for the calzone-eaters who haven’t been listening close enough. Over the years ShowYouSuck has polished his reference-heavy bizarro-collages into dense nerd escapism: couched watching Judge Dredd while homies go hungry, pizza on the stove while the kids are in the catacomb. Most silly at his most vulnerable: “My ego smaller than a Prius/My flaws are bigger than an eagle/As precious to a Smeagle/At Riot Fest watching Screeching Weasel.” Topical and tragic comedy like Aristophanes crossed with Peter Quill.
And the sci-fi-noir bangs. Loose Slices 2 flexes a theremin, scuzzy garage drums, trap bass, and a five-part, funhouse-mirror club anthem about the first five episodes of Walking Dead s4. The result is something similar to the woodwork whipped up at the Artpentry gallery where ShowYouSuck sidekicks his friend, Floyd A. Davis IV (who produced “Pizza $” here). Artpentry’s art is loud and winking: skateboards shaped like hands flipping the bird, giant mounted dinosaur heads rocking grillz and gold chains, fanged and antennaed demonic pizza slices hanging from the ceiling. Garish pop culture jokes amused as much by cheese-based supervillians as it is celebratory of all the dude bros and girls who can only afford Digiorno’s. As long as you’re hungry and scared, and your copy of Blade Runner is the Director’s Cut, grab a slice and a spot on the couch.
Download: Loose Slices 2
