Prolific Chicago rapper Adamn Killa makes his own fun in self-isolation on Hit the Adamnon April 10, 2020 at 8:49 pm

On March 11, prolific Chicago rapper Adamn Killa debuted a new dance on Triller that he calls “Hit the Adamn,” performing it to a sample of his new song of the same name. In the clip, Adamn cocks his arm at a 90-degree angle and leans his shoulder to one side, then makes sharp crouching movements in response to the track’s thundering, minimal bass–it’s simple enough, but the connection of the song to the dance is so unpredictable that I can’t imagine anybody actually learning it. Lots of local rappers with untraditional approaches to the genre have emerged in the past five years or so, but Adamn knows better than most how to embrace the whimsy in his style without undermining his workmanlike dedication to the craft of hip-hop. On his recent self-released EP, also called Hit the Adamn, he half-whispers through raps about his place in the world of hip-hop, his flow teetering on the edge of the beat–but even when Adamn sounds like he’s tripping over himself, he never loses his footing. Wild affectations rub up against dry detachment in his delivery, creating a strange but magical friction. He releases music frequently enough (Hit the Adamn follows up February’s Life of Whodeywant) that he can quickly pivot to respond to the news, and on the new EP he uses “Wash My Hands” to address everybody’s least favorite new virus. It’s one of several songs on Hit the Adamn with hooks as catchy as jingles, and some of their instrumentals evoke nursery rhymes too (on “Throw in the Towel,” producer the Legendary Fya Man interpolates “Mary Had a Little Lamb”). This makes them perfect for replaying in your head to make sure you keep scrubbing long enough. v

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