Sims

Doomtree rapper Sims has a deliciously husky, endearingly nasal rasp of a voice that’s crisp and exact, so his rhymes snap even without punch lines. His politics on the new Bad Time Zoo, his second proper album, are leftist, but in a way that tries to describe the world from scratch, as if approaching capitalist anomie for the first time ever. Producer Lazerbeak loves soul-fried futurist funkscapes that give way under your feet, with “Weight” striking the perfect catchy balance between sensibilities, seductively framing cynicism as a burden. 

Updated 02/09/2011