This EP was released on July 25th this year. Airøspace is a rapper—and producer apparently—signed to EXOCIETY. The only artists who I’m really familiar with on the label are Kill Bill & Rav. I’ve also heard some of Scuare’s work, and he’s pretty dope. I want to check out more stuff from EXOCIETY, and I’ve seen a lot of people talking about Airøspace. I think he’s the most talked about artist on the label aside from Kill Bill & Rav. I’ve barely heard any of his work though. I liked his feature on that NEW MOON project that Kill Bill & Rav dropped earlier this year a lot—even though he just helped with the hook—and he also has a song called Sailor Moon, which is really fucking good. This project in particular is just an instrumental project, so it didn’t really give me an idea of who he is as a rapper. Maybe it wasn’t the best place to jump into his discography. But, hey… Fuck it.

The first thing I noticed about this project was that all of the track titles make up the sentence “I don’t feel like living anymore,” so that was pretty edgy. One thing that’s clear about Airøspace—and EXOCIETY in general—is that they’re full on weebs. I’m infamous for my anti-weeb rhetoric, but I don’t really mind it in music that much. I’m a big fan of Noveliss, and I like the other members of EXOCIETY that I’ve listened to. For whatever reason it just doesn’t really bother me much when it’s mixed with Hip Hop. This project in particular doesn’t have an anime album cover or any anime samples, but it sounds like something you’d hear on that ChilledCow “lofi hip hop radio” stream on YouTube with the anime gif playing in the background. Oh, wait… I just found the video that Airøspace uploaded to YouTube for this project. Guess what it is. That’s right. WEEB SHIT. Anyway, I’m gonna talk about every track on this project in the proper order of the tracklist since there aren’t any songs I disliked. It starts off with I, which basically sounds like a lo-fi Trap beat. I think LORD BYRON would fit perfectly over this beat. The loop isn’t amazing or anything, but I enjoyed it. I’m glad he kept the track pretty short. He doesn’t give you a chance to get bored because it ends when you’re ready for a new sound. With that said, the following track, don’t, almost just sounds like an alternate version of I. It sounds like it shares a lot of the same instruments. It’s my favorite track on the project though. It’s a really fucking cool beat. The relatively long length actually feels justified because the beat takes a while to fully develop, but it never feels like he’s running the same motif into the ground. It’s like a big collection of ideas that slowly unfolds over the course of three and a half minutes. I really like the percussion on this track. It sounds great. The song is dope af. The next track, feel, sounds pretty different from the first couple tracks.

It sounds much more melodic and less cold. It makes me feel like I’m chilling on a beach while the sun is setting. I also picture myself drinking a fruity alcoholic beverage with a little parasol sticking out of it. It’s a really chill instrumental. It sounds like an indica high in the form of music. It’s dope. The next song is called like, and it feels a lot harder than the preceding material on the project. I don’t know why ScHoolboy Q came to mind while listening to it, but I feel like he’d sound great over that beat. He’d have to be really rapping though, not doing that generic bullshit that he was trying on CrasH Talk. It’s the longest track on the project, so I’m glad there was a beat switch towards the midpoint. Out of all the songs on the project, I feel like this one would be the most fun to rap over. It’s a really downtempo song, but the percussion still feels bouncy. It’s a really dope track. The penultimate track, living, sounds the most like something someone like MIKE would spit over. I love how dreamy it sounds, and the muffled vocal sample sounds really cool. As cool as the beat is, I’m glad it’s the shortest track on the album because there’s not a lot of variation. It would’ve gotten old if the loop was extended for more than a minute and a half. It’s a dope song though. The final track, anymore, is driven by some slow piano keys, which makes the instrumental sound a lot more emotional than most of the other beats. The percussion is relatively uptempo, but the beat still feels very glum. It’s not one of my favorites on the project, but I still think it’s pretty dope. 🙂

This is a really good EP. As I mentioned in the preamble of this review, it obviously didn’t give me an idea of who Airøspace is as a rapper, but I’m sold on his production skills because these beats are dope. As far as lo-fi production goes, I’ve been fucking with Jansport J all year, but these beats have a pretty different atmosphere. These feel way more melancholy and moody. When I close my eyes while listening to these beats, I just see a window being bombarded with raindrops. Jansport J’s production sounds very J Dilla-ish. These beats are more akin to Earl Sweatshirt’s Solace EP in my opinion. It’s all lo-fi stuff, but they’re very different aesthetically. I don’t really have a preference personally. They’re both really good. This is labeled as “Vol. 1,” so that leads me to believe there will be more installments in this series. I’m looking forward to the next one because this shit is dope.

Favorite Song: don’t
Least Favorite Song: anymore

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