Hi everyone, Dethony Luxetano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this slayr Half Blood deluxe album — wait, actually, mixtape. This is a deluxe mixtape, correcting myself.

Anyway, yes, new deluxe expanded edition mixtape from this Philly up-and-comer, slayr. He is an underground artist, and as, you know, the deluxe connotation makes obvious, what we are seeing here is essentially an entire other album's worth of tracks added onto a mixtape that was originally released last year, which is not too much material to manage if you are new to slayr, because the original version of this album was just 26 minutes long or so, and the additional 10 tracks here have essentially doubled the whole thing in length.

And I will say, part of the reason I'm talking about this, even though it is just a deluxe edition of tracks, is that this new set of songs definitely don't feel like a bunch of odds and ends, which is often the case sometimes with these sister albums or expanded editions, where artists tend to pile on more material to remind people of a project that was released a while ago, or just to bring in more streams.

But no, the deluxe version of Half Blood, the front end of it now, is actually seamlessly sequenced like a whole 'nother album, one that I would actually argue shows a bit more musical ambition than the original version. And it's cool how much, musically speaking, slayr has been able to advance in such a short period of time, and quickly turn into a standout artist in the underground as well. A term that has a lot of connotations these days, when you describe someone as underground, what exactly do you mean by that? Because in this instance, as I'm using it, of course I'm describing this new generation of young rappers who, in a lot of ways, are sonic disciples of guys like Playboi Carti, really operating in this rage style. A burgeoning music scene that at one point had a pretty defined and singular sound.

But the further this movement grows and develops, the more alterations and mutations and fragmentations we're seeing among some of its most popular artists. This has led to some rappers embracing the extremity inherent in this sound and dropping records that are just so ear-piercingly harsh. Be it Che or OsamaSon, most recently 2Slimey, you have guys obviously that have roots in this underground scene and are doing their best to kind of take this sound mainstream, like Yeat. And then conversely, some names have found ways to diversify the sound by bringing some pop elements into the fold, beats and aesthetics pulled from electronic music too. Names like Lucy Bedroque as well as Jane Remover come to mind, figures who I often don't mention enough in the context of these conversations, frankly.

But part of the reason I'm reminded of them here is that slayr on Half Blood is very much more on that side of the spectrum, where you're getting these more accessible and melodic fusions of underground hip hop right now. And with this deluxe version of Half Blood, not only does that leave a lot more room to breathe in some of these punchier, more distorted mixes, but slayr really leads into these very expressive and catchy autotuned vocal leads throughout the entirety of this project that often feel inspired by the likes of Travis Scott when he was really at his commercial peak, or even a lot of the emo-trap SoundCloud pioneers of the mid-2010s.

And while most of BloodLuxe's sound does sit pretty firmly in that rage lane, you're getting in addition to that these clear nods to pop punk and metal and EDM, electronic music, depending on the track.

So yeah, that's made this project a hell of a lot more listenable than what you're going to get from your average Opium copycat. And while some might argue that slayr playing with sounds like these, even in a digicore sense, is like not the point of this sound, not the point of this lane, not the point of this scene. If the music is good, it's good.

I mean, after all, slayr has been one of the most requested artists for me to talk about for like the past 2 weeks now on this channel. And he also recently won a song wars competition among some pretty buzzy artists on PlaqueBoyMax's Twitch page. And if slayr's music didn't have an appeal inside and outside of the underground, if that crossover appeal wasn't there, I don't think that would have happened.

Now, for the purpose of this review, I'm mostly just going to focus on the deluxe edition of this album because that's kind of the half of it I enjoy most, and honestly, if you like that as well, you're gonna check out the original Half Blood anyway.

But this thing really is a stunner from the start with the opening track, which features these instantly catchy vocal leads that are just heavy with all of these vocoder harmonies. It's equal parts robotic and angelic, and builds up into these fried trap beats that you would expect from someone in slayr's lane. But then after a quick verse and chorus, we break things down into this, like, electro-pop beat with these driving kicks, and it's just this jubilee of bliss. It's high energy from start to finish, and it's just refreshing to hear something in this style coming out of this scene that isn't obsessed with trying to like play it super mysterious and boring.

From here we have an awesome transition into the following, "Hard Knock", which again, how well this album flows from one track to the next says so much about how slayr kind of is playing the macro picture game and looking at this project, even if it is relatively short, as like a larger cohesive piece.

But yeah, with this track we have all sorts of 8-bit bleeps and bloops, old-school synthesizer sounds, booming fried bass too. But ultimately what really sells the track is just slayr's ear for hooks and catchy flows. "Yeah, easy. Oooh Yeah, easy. Oooh." And that harmonized guitar outro at the very finish is epic as hell and a really nice touch.

Then "Flashout Freestyle" – banger. This track is like everything rage should be: volume, energy, slayr sounds locked-in vocally. He's not like falling all over the beat or anything like that. The dude is a rock star, especially as these metal riffs and double bass drums pop in out of nowhere and sound killer, bringing us right back into the original beat. And then this hilarious "fuck the repetition" line that gets repeated, not only is very self-aware, but I feel like is a statement itself on the direction artistically slayr is trying to go in.

We have Lucy Bedroque on the following track, which I think again stylistically and artistically says a lot about where slayr is coming from with this record, where he's trying to take his music. The touching piano outro is proof that you can make something in this style that doesn't necessarily have to be one note. You can have those really aggressive sounds but then also do change-ups that complement the vibe of the song.

At the start of "Toxic", I would say we get almost like some Future vibes to an extent, but with a digicore twist with all these video game-flavored synthesizers that are panned pretty hard into each channel. The bar about him being the best fat boy rapping is hilarious and speaks to his self-awareness. My one issue with this track, though, is that there's like a total beat and song switch after the first leg that I feel like leads to kind of a momentum loss. But still, I do like how unhinged the ad-libs are throughout this track.

"Eyesight" is another searing trap track with a melodic edge, G-funk siren synths, glossy MIDI strings that somehow work really well in this context. It really reminds me of like super early Trippie Redd, when the guy still kind of cared about melodies and song structure a lot more. Except with, in slayr's case, I think a stronger vocal delivery, frankly, one that is a lot less grating.

"Brand New" is a total anthem about people in your life who may switch up or change sides after things have changed for you. Maybe you've blown up, maybe you've gone up and down in life. And while "Racks" is a little one-note, I do think the ending of this deluxe edition of the album is pretty strong, 'cause the pop appeal of "Paint a Picture" is a really nice contrast.

And then we have an amazing closer, which features not only these boy-girl vocal harmonies that just breathe so much life into this song. But it's another anthemic number with some seriously righteous energy, with slayr essentially making comments about not being on the same page as somebody, and that being kind of a turnoff, at least how I'm reading it, while also making some commentary in regards to popping pills, driving drunk.

But yeah, overall it's a really epic finish to a very harmonious, melodic record that, again, to hear something like that in this sort of lane is very refreshing, even if it is a little short and a few tracks here and there pale in comparison to others, which is essentially why I'm feeling, I would say, a light 8 on this one.

Anthony Fantano, slayr, forever.