Chicago rapper Mugen! the Human grew up in Prince George’s County, Maryland, but on the new “Wanted” he raps with the speed and rhythmic fluency of someone who spent his youth in Chatham watching footwork dancers face off at Battlegrounds. The track kicks off his new self-released EP, For Her Consideration, with a live-wire flow that Mugen adapts to the instrumental’s odd pulse. He shifts the speed of his rapping like he’s leaping carefully through an interlocking nest of rotating fire bars in Super Mario Bros., so that his words slide between and tie together a hiccuping vocal sample and a palpitating bass thump. Mugen, born Armand Rome, moved to Chicago in 2016 to study guitar at Columbia College, and he’s since found a community here. He’s a member of Mp3dotcom, a hip-hop collective formed in late 2021 whose dozen or so members include rising MCs such as Aubry of Stranded Civilians. Mugen has a dry, husky voice and a love for the kind of sample-based underground hip-hop whose spacious instrumental architecture requires an MC with a strong personality—a love that comes through on his brief 2021 album, Ghost. The deluxe version of his bubbly new EP adds songs that emphasize Mugen’s range on the mike and adaptable ear for melody. His woebegone, syllable-smearing rap-singing on “Okay!” brings a bittersweet feel to the groaning, murmuring synths in its bass-heavy backing track—the instrumental reminds me of Lil Yachty’s viral “Poland,” but Mugen’s delivery makes the song’s dystopian melody distinctively his own.
Mugen! the Human Heavy Crownz headlines, Mugen! the Human, Neph & Nigel, and Aero Austaire open. Tue 1/31, 8:30 PM, Golden Dagger, 2447 N. Halsted, $12. 21+