Welcome to the Boolin Tunes Staff Spotlight, a special segment on the site in which we dive deep into a classic or simply personally beloved album to shine a light on releases that we feel deserve a second glance.
“Milo is officially over”, tweeted Rory Ferreria in late 2018. After seven years of rap music garnering labels such as “art rap” and “nerdcore”, Ferreira laid to rest his old moniker. Moving forward, he goes by R.A.P. Ferreira, where the more forwardly-conscious themes and jazzy passages would take center stage. The surrounding circumstances changed a lot since the mixtape and Hellfyre Club days – now married with a son in tow, with more important things to tackle, which necessitating a change in outward identity.
It was only four years earlier that Milo released his debut album, A Toothpaste Suburb, through Hellfyre. The rather esoteric affair acts as a companion piece to a trio of Hellfyre Club albums from the same year. As the newest member of the group, Milo plays on this idea by injecting themes of wide-eyed innocence, the loss of which gives rise to suburban angst:
The image is a prison of the soul
Heredity and education have been exposed
Vices and aspirations have been disposed
I just thought you’d like to know
Milo‘s stream-of-consciousness style, constantly on display, allows a song to switch gears incredibly quickly. In a couplet the subject will switch from Wheel of Fortune to Milo‘s late best friend, or from Rosie O’Donnell to Pontius Pilate. Even so, the themes of failed expectations, loss, and disappointment maintain, along with a constant desire to accept the Here and Now in spite.
They said I blew it and my forehead vein became prominent like Daniel Day Lewis
There will be blood and my veins are full of mud
And I’m counting down the days till the flood
Buoyed by spacey, water-like production, each song creates its own space to live and breathe in. The album feels like hearing scraps of paper tossed into a ceiling fan and left to float downward, then read aloud in a cramped, dark room. At its worst, it may sound like he’s reading his summer book list. However, in most instances we’re left with heartfelt, moving songs comprised fully of all their various parts, as different as they may be:
I was baptized in a Walmart branded Kiddie-pool
There’s no more masks to wear
My father stares in my eyes only to see what I’ve stashed in there
Buffering lies, a particularly covetous guy
Finger-fucks the sky and asks for more
In other words, commercialism and its deleterious affects on the adolescent mind. The truth comes through the absurdity, complete with name-dropping brand names and celebrities at an alarming pace. Milo appears at arguably his least confident on this album, but also his most relatable as a result.
Finally, Milo never released another collaboration with Hellfyre Club after A Toothpaste Suburb, making this album the end of an era for him. It marks a significant pivot in his career, though too inconsistent for consideration among his best. Even so, it sets the stage for a leader in underground hip-hop, with just enough wonder throughout to evoke a note of hope.
Otherwise, we hope that you join us next Sunday for another retrospective from our team.