A couple months ago, music critic Craig Jenkins put me on to Captwolf, a six-man rap troupe from Detroit. Jenkins insisted that I listen to Captwolf's latest mixtape, Liquor Store Pizza Party At My Crib, a project that I will now, alternatively, describe as 808s & Space Invaders—a woozy and wonderful jam session, a mix of dorm room dirges and karaoke gusto. In the best possible sense, Liquor Store Pizza Party At My Crib sounds like the guts of an arcade cabinet.
Captwolf is young and hungry. The group includes the producer swoozydolphinand rappers groovy armani, novakain, lextheradical, young sui, and the captain, a.k.a., Elijah Small. Their friendship predating puberty, Torin Clay (swoozydolphin) and Small attended different schools but grew up together in the same church. Small eventually recruited Clay as a DJ and producer for him and his classmates at the University of Detroit's Jesuit High School & Academy.
Captwolf initially included just the captain, lex, and young sui, and then gradually expanded to incorporate swoozydolphin and the rest. Captwolf recorded its earliest mixtape, CAPT|WOLF, in 2011.
Swoozy, who learned bass at 12 and then started making beats 14, credits J Dilla, Death Grips, and Danny Brown as his formative influences. While producing, mixing, and mastering all of Captwolf's output himself, swoozy also attends the University of Michigan. He recently earned a grant from business school at U-M, which has somewhat alleviated the hardships of being "a college kid with unfortunate fees."
Today, we're excited to premiere the music video for "Bland" from Liquor Store Pizza Party At My Crib. The video was directed by Blake Brady, produced by Myron Watkins, and edited by swoozy himself. Watch the "Bland" music video about, and stream Liquor Store Pizza Party At My Crib below.
