R.A.P. Ferreira and Kenny Segal [extended]

• The Truly Ancient and Original Lefthanded Styles of the Hoodwinkers and Penny Pinchers [Ruby Yacht, 2019] ★★
• Ajai [Cohn Corporation, 2020] A−
• Purple Moonlight Pages [Ruby Yacht, 2020] A
• Bob's Son: R.A.P. Ferreira in the Garden Level Cafe of the Scallops Hotel [Ruby Yacht, 2021] A−
• 5 to the Eye With Stars [Ruby Yacht, 2022] ★★★
• Maps [Backwoodz Studioz, 2023] A−
• The First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap [Ruby Yacht, 2024] ★★★
• The Night Green Side of It [Backwoodz Studioz, 2025] A−

See Also:

• R.A.P. Ferreira
• R.A.P. Ferreira & Fumitake Tamura
• Serengeti & Kenny Segal
• Billy Woods and Kenny Segal
• Kenny Segal

Consumer Guide Reviews:

R.A.P. Ferreira: The Truly Ancient and Original Lefthanded Styles of the Hoodwinkers and Penny Pinchers [Ruby Yacht, 2019]
"peace to Daniel Dumile, peace to Dâm Funk, shout-out Ariel Pink one time, [garbled] Stevie Wonder, anyone who keeps making music past they prime, ha-ha, me too" ("Animatronics," "Big Business") ★★

Serengeti & Kenny Segal: Ajai [Cohn Corporation, 2020]
Riding well-textured beats from L.A. alt-rap wizard Segal, Geti's most musical album in quite a few prolific years is also his most accessible in quite a few daunting ones. Or maybe not so accessible--I can't really tell because commodity fetishism as aesthetic pursuit as neurotic obsession has been over my head since Run-D.M.C. began shouting about their Adidas. The first fashion victim here is the title character, an Indian sneaker collector who cooks with quinoa, appreciates tarragon, and siphons his wife's medical-research earnings into--to cite just three lines--Balenciaga, Rick Owens, Supreme, Prada, Abloh, and Diadora, and soon there'll be more. Midway through he's replaced in the subject position by telephone repairman turned over-the-hill rapper Kenny Dennis, who at the start is eating tuna straight out the can but betters himself before the album is over. I think. A−

R.A.P. Ferreira: Purple Moonlight Pages [Ruby Yacht, 2020]
Bad on me for missing Roy Allen Philip when he was rapping as Milo pre-Trump and promise I'll address that omission sometime, as only befits a sui generis Omar Khayyam fan whose return to the lists begins "Fence-building nihilists, good evening/This is the late-sleeping utopian speaking" and whose young son stares with "them wide ol' eyes" as "I scoop socks calmly from under chairs" in a rap with the striking title "Laundry." Son of Chicago South Siders who spent his childhood in Maine and his adolescence with his dad in none other than Kenosha, Wisconsin, then returned to the precincts where his social worker mom maintains a blog called Black Girl in Maine, Roy's not a great rhymer-as-rhymer. Nor is he especially hooky or at all danceable as he free-forms over a striking, changeable jazz-inflected rhythm section curated by Serengeti pal Kenny Segal. As a "king poetical dingbat" and "prince of the corduroy coons," he observes: "Professional rappers often only heard post-mortem/Perhaps try trade school, electrician training seems prescient" (which I should mention will soon assonate with "hesitant"). His motto "No starvin' artists/Just artists starvin' to know," a member in good standing of "The United Defenders of International Good Will," he does his best to enjoy the occasional "vegan white cheddar please panini croissant" as he follows advice he once came across on a bathroom wall: "to be the eyes, the ears, and the consciousness of the creator of the universe." A

R.A.P. Ferreira: Bob's Son: R.A.P. Ferreira in the Garden Level Cafe of the Scallops Hotel [Ruby Yacht, 2021]
Once he has it out with Alexa in a 1:46 opener w/ piano and rhythm section that always tickles me, Ferreira is free to launch a musical poetry jam anchored by shout-outs to African-American Beat forefathers Leroi Jones d/b/a Amiri Baraka ("We are the old men of the rap age"), Ted Joans ("Always take the glasses off for the photographers so I won't look like the rest of 'em"), and cough bombing Bob Kaufman (whose "Abomunist Manifesto" Ferreira converts into a finale). Gregory Corso drops by to say "If you wanna be a poet you can't be/You gotta know you're a poet/And then you've got no fucking choice." And looming over it all there's "Diogenes on the Auction Block": "I stepped up to that auction block, cleared my throat, I was like 'Dig [cough/chuckle], I'm the type of slave you buy if, uh, you, uh, need a new master.'" A−

R.A.P. Ferreira: 5 to the Eye With Stars [Ruby Yacht, 2022]
"Rapping gets people killed," State of Mainer notes while copping Hegel's word for ethical order, reporting that his son's laugh sounds like a symphony, and challenging any billionaire with the guts to a game of horseshoes ("Sittlichkeit," "Fighting Back") ★★★

Billy Woods and Kenny Segal: Maps [Backwoodz Studioz, 2023]
With crucial help from Serengeti and R.A.P. Ferreira pal Kenny Segal, who adds crucial musical ballast to rhymes that cruise to a soft landing on a finale that finds reason for militance in a playground, Woods finally delivers music worthy of a mind-body continuum whose wholeness there was never reason to doubt. Danny Brown fucks shit up and Aesop Rock nails shit down, rappers are stricken with gout and there's a suicide at the gentrifier's next door, the acknowledged healing qualities of zithromyecin and New York City tapwater fail to compensate for peace cut with dread, your taxes underwriting police brutality settlements, and other "things you can't undo." With "every victory pyrrhic," you do make it a principle to skip soundcheck. But definitely not to skip the playground, or to scare your kid off the jungle gym you know can be dangerous and he doesn't yet. A−

R.A.P. Ferreira & Fumitake Tamura: The First Fist to Make Contact When We Dap [Ruby Yacht, 2024]
Kenosha-to-Maine rapper Ferreira puts the cherry blossom on top of his escape to Nashville by hooking up with classically trained Japanese beatmaker Tamura ("Culture War Patriots," "Medicinal Hymnal #77") ★★★

The Night Green Side of It [Backwoodz Studioz, 2025]
Subscriber-only review. A−