It isn’t often that we get an opportunity to hear some of the best and most underrated rappers in the game come together with one of the most notorious producers of our generation to make a hit. Diablo has been crafting the sounds of the underground Rap scene for years, and he’s often underappreciated for all of the hits he has created. He’s worked with artists like Lil Pump, Kodak Black, Craig Xen, Smokepurpp, and Ski Mask the Slump God, among countless others, and each beat he provides sets them up for success before they even spit a single bar. Shakewell has long been one of my favorite artists because of his high energy and assertive disposition, along with his pure talents to Rap as fast-paced and impressively as he wants. Terror Reid, who is Getter’s Rap alter ego, has been bringing back a grungy, abundantly violent 90’s Hip-hop style and his bars are as impressive as the top spitters in the game, which a lot of people might not have realized before he began getting his name out there as being more than just a producer. I’ve honestly only heard Eliozie’s abilities when he’s hopped on Terror Reid songs, considering they’re frequent collaborators, but time and time again he has impressed me and proved himself as an obviously talented emcee.
I wanted to preface all of these wonderful artists because they decided to join forces to create a hostile and violent new offering entitled “Killing”. I feel as if, at least according to their typical lyrical content, these are some of the misfits of Rap music, and when they join together to create a song like this, they’re making an eye-opening case as to why they need to not only be respected but slightly feared in the music industry. Diablo sets them up with a haunting foundation comprised of tiptoeing, creepy synths that sound somewhat like distorted piano keys, Earth-shattering percussion, some siren sounds that come and go, and 808s that hit so hard, they just might blow out your speakers. Shakewell comes in for the chorus after a massive build-up. Anyone else wouldn’t be able to match the energy that the beat built up to right before getting into the vocals but Shake met the vibe and proceeded to completely go off of the rails. His bars are almost yelled while still having somewhat of a calmness to them which is weird but interesting nonetheless, and he recites his lyrics in a spitfire cadence that is as impressive and masterful as ever. He continues this similar cadence into the first verse but also slows up just a bit at times, giving his lines some time to breathe while filling in any spaces with his lively ad-libs. His lines contain topics like drugs, taking other people’s girls and giving them back when he’s done, and his trustworthy crew that will have his back through it all.
Eliozie comes in next, and he blew me away once again. His lyrics are spoken so fast while also being annunciated so well that it almost sounds like he’s speaking a different language at times. I have no idea how he is able to speak so rampantly, but he does it time and time again every time I hear a verse from him, and it just never fails to intrigue me. He mentions how everyone doubted him but now they’ve grown to become proud, not following others, and warning rappers to not try and rap if they’re not going to kill it each and every time. Terror Reid comes in for the final verse and he was the artist I was most curious about. I only say this because he’s normally spitting bars over his typically 90’s influenced instrumentals and this beat doesn’t necessarily contain many of those same elements, so I was interested to see how he’d handle this change of pace. I’m not sure why I even gave it a second thought because he comes in and proceeds to tear this production to shreds. His cadences are fast and still sound as if they could’ve come from the golden era of Hip-Hop, but he adapts and conquers unlike ever before on this offering. His bars contain a plethora of vivid sexual innuendos, entertaining wordplay, and violent threats that are spoken in some of the most comically amusing ways possible.
I had no doubt in my mind that this song was going to be a hit because I know exactly how talented all of these artists are. I was just more so curious about how they were going to interact with one another and sound together on the same beat. I had already known that they were friends, so they have a connection, to begin with, but their sounds are typically pretty dissimilar so the outcome could have been massively different. Shakewell does a great job of setting the tone with his high energy and quick bars, but then Eliozie and Terror Reid come in and back him up with some rapidly impressive lyrics of their own with some of the most entertaining and impressive rhyme schemes in the entire music scene. Diablo, although he might go underappreciated even after creating the foundation for these artists to go off, truly made this track a hit before any of them even spoke a word. I hope that this isn’t the last we hear of this supergroup, or at least some combination of them, because I can’t stress how seamlessly they worked with one another. “Killing” is the name of this destructive hit by some of the most talented misfits within the Rap industry, so be sure to give it a spin as soon as possible.