Yesterday was the first time I was exposed to this video, or any music at all from Brooklyn MC Zebra Katz. I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first, but it seems to make a little more sense to me 24 hours later.

Yeah, the visuals throughout this track are kinda tense. Tense in a the Shining sorta way. Yeah, it’s an obvious reference due to the twins, but I think the comparison goes beyond that. Everything in the video looks somewhat normal, but something is clearly off. The lack of a climax makes the tension build higher, and the repetitive beat and lyrics make the lack of change more and more apparent.

I guess this could be called a hip hop song, but there’s actually a track far out of the genre that “Ima Read” reminds me of: Suicide’s “Frankie Teardrop.” Zebra Katz definitely has a similar dedication to repetition, darkness, and minimalism on this track.

A majority of the tracks Katz has dropped so far fit into this mold. “Sex Sellz,” “ICU,” and “DnS” could be compared to the aesthetic of “Ima Read,” sure, but the details don’t seem to be completely hammered out yet.

Some of Katz’s tracks border on laughably bad–even if they are meant to be a slight joke–and the flows on a few of the slower songs here get kinda lazy and fall off tempo.

Still, despite the flaws, Katz is heading into a direction of his own, and I’m looking forward to seeing where it ends up. You can download “Ima Read” for free right here.