When big names like Joell Ortiz and KXNG Crooked (better known as Crooked I) decide to make an EP together and surround themselves with producers like Illmind, Apollo Brown or The Heatmakerz, it's hard to go wrong. With H.A.R.D., the two rappers (who have played together in the hip-hop supergroup Slaughterhouse) perpetuate a sonic tradition. The samples explode, spurting out, and the flows respond with sumptuous skill. Memorial Day’s various melodies, Wolves’s more modern darkness and heaviness, Get Ya Money’s Feist sample... This EP will appeal to fans of Jay Electronica, Just Blaze or even the first pop-filled productions of Travis Scott. We don't know if Slaughterhouse will ever release any new albums, but what two of its members are offering us here is a great consolation. © Brice Miclet/Qobuz