By Taylor Drake
The pool of sensations, sights, and flavors can vary. The elated experiences are short-lived, nothing overstays its welcome. The afterglow makes for a graceful stage left.
On Jan.1, 2021 , Key! and Tony Seltzer released their collaborative album, The Alpha Jerk.
Key! aka, Fat Man Key is an independent rapper from Atlanta who has been active since 2012, getting his start with the group Two-9. He gained mainstream appeal in 2014 for his feature on the song “Look at Wrist” by Father.
Since that year Key! has managed to stay productive, according to Discogs.com, Key! has 4 albums (6 according to Geniuse.com), 9 EPs, and 3 mixtapes. The most noteworthy album in his possession is 2018’s “777” produced by Hip-hop production golden child Kenny Beats. The Fader said about the record,
“777 feels like a full picture of Key! now, a person and artist who’s gone through a lot of growing up, has more than a few positive things to show for it, and is ready to keep on in that direction.”
Many outlets talk about Key as an unsung figure that helped mold the modern sound of hip-hop. According to fellow Two-9 member Reese Laflair via Complex,
‘“He’s a young underground legend. He put on a lot of today’s biggest rappers,” Reese La Flare explains. “If you pay attention to the music you can hear and see Key’s influence [on what’s popular in rap]. The lines between underground and mainstream are very blurred, you know. The big guys look at Key and myself as ahead of the curve, so it’s only right they copy the drip.”’
Toney Seltzer, an up and coming New York based producer with credits under artists like Wiki, Smokepurpp, Freddie Gibbs, and Princess Nokia. His influences according to his profile in The Fader include J Dilla and Company flow. The profile described his sound as,
“…a sonic approach that feels cool and dark like a night drive on a highway, but has bright and “off-kilter” accents laid overtop, kind of like when the city lights reflect off your windshield.”
The first question that I had after listening to the album was, “What’s up with this psychedelic album cover?” and I found my answer by accident. When typing in Alpha Jerk into Google an, article about Jimi Hendrix pops up that improperly quotes a friend of Hendrix about his death and explains the term as a drug user’s path between life and death,
“This is when you’ve felt as though. ‘Oh, wow, I’m goin’ into the wrong hole here.’ And you really feel funny. You feel like that possibly is the hole to die.”
Key sampled the video in the promo for this album on Twitter, you can hear him mixed into the background. A nice little bread crumb to find.
Originally tweeted by The Alpha Jerk (@FATMANKEY) on January 10, 2021.
This isn’t a dominant theme on the project, the dark side of narcotics, though KEY! is not afraid to tell you that he does drugs. The Fat Man is going for the more “positive socket” as far as the mood of the album is concerned.
This is my first time listening to a full-length Key! project; what hits me across this collection of tracks, is the warm personality of this MC. Key! seems like this down to earth southern dude who was able to make some legit bread and on this album you run into him at a party. And boy does he have some shit-talking to do, Key!’s lyrics are filled with all kinds of clever and quotable punchlines that aren’t complicated, but make up for it in being likable.
Some great examples would be on the first track “Like That”, a song where Key! answers why he acts the way he does over a trippy chop up of Goodie Mob’s “Free“,
"The Glock is in my DNA, the Glock is in my jeans That's just how I grew up, do I look like a do boy? She used to play a nigga like a new toy That's hot to me"
Then there’s the song “Clinical” and “Change”. on Clinical he raps,
"I just got a new broom, like I'm Harry If niggas wanna play, I make a moviе, Tyler Perry."
Hey, lets make things clear, play with Key! and he’ll fly in with the automatic and make you vanish! Or even worse, he’ll put you in a movie that every Black person has to say something to the effect of, “Ya I know it’s getting worse with every release, but it’s all him, no one employs him.” or “That bald dude from Law and Order did due his thing though, I’ll say that.” Then leave you with two words, “Ashtray bitch!”
On Change, which is a relationship, song he opens up with,
"Worst thing ever, worst thing in the world I’m a man need a woman, shawty acting like a girl Now you want to be dumb, shawty acting like Lil Darryl."
Just a clever way to paint this woman as childish and do you ever hear that saying being used against an actual female? I won’t explain Lil Darryl, just know that you should leave him alone, let him eat his cereal.
Key!’s vocal approach is a huge factor in how he stands out inside the saturated hip-hop crowd. After interacting with all his vocal mannerisms, I understand why people say he birthed a ton of rappers and how people copycat his abilities. Key glides across tracks with either this cool and collected fire in bursts flow or he’ll use melodic spontaneity. Both of which are grounded by these well thought over hooks that pose as pleasing thesis statements. “Xylophone”, a highlight on this album, presents a flamboyant instrumental that utilizes a groovy xylophone loop. It’s just hard not to bounce to and Key! waists no time, he just slices through this song with pure confidence.
In the first verse, I can’t help but physically pantomime and lip-sync when no one is around,
"Whoever hurt you I am not them I don’t fuck with groupies so don’t be one of them Where I come from wе stomp a nigga with a Timb Bitch ass nigga, you gon’ sink or you gon’ swim? (shh) Damn, I ain’t selling out for nothin' These fakе ass niggas like Robitussin, I scrip me a nigga don’t throw in nothin'"
His melodic side is polychromed across all his records, but the best track to go to is the last track “Send It” where he sings an elongated version of Tony Hawk, extending the last name by the w.
The most creative hook belongs to be the leading single of this album, “My Puppy”.
"Wear my shirt, spend the night Wear my shirt, spend the night It don't feel good bein' broke, my dawg Talkin' to them folks, you gotta go by law Wear my shirt, spend the night Wear my shirt, spend the night It don't feel good bein' broke, my dawg Talkin' to them folks, you gotta go by law"
Written it seems simple, but verbally, it’s different. When I hear him say “Wear my shirt”, it feels like he might be asking a question (where?), and then his girl answers him with “spend the night”.
But there are some tracks where it feels that Key! is losing energy, running out of things to say, or just dropped the ball. “Heart” and “I’m a star” are pretty uneventful and lack the star-powered substance that Key! brings for the majority of the record. The hooks are annoying and overly repeated and the verses offer nothing of worth. “Narcissistic” wasn’t bad but I wanted him to take this caliginous beat in a different direction. On this record Key! is going in this more serious and morbid direction. He opened the record with,
"I don't get mad no mo', I go get a bag My boy he spin the block, he spin the block just like a ceiling fan No mo' of that, we legendary, can't be locked in solitary I'm tired of walkin' through cemeteries"
But then he plays it safe and takes this dark tone into the usual themes of the album, “niggas are hating on me”, etc. this song is the gateway to an almost forced self-centered, Alpha Jerk section, resting the last quarter of the album that, wasn’t fully realized.
Tony Seltzer proves himself to be a diversified producer that can crank out accessible and interesting beats, but in the same breath provide some abstract loops that challenge Key!.
As far as accessibility goes I have to pull “My Puppy”. You could give this beat to a New York rapper and he’ll take you to a brownstone in the summer. You could give this beat to a Chicago rapper and he’ll start drilling. Give this beat to an authentic ATL rapper, he’ll hook up them grits on that track. The backbone of the beat can be found in these synths that rise on the track. It has an East Coast quality and it’s funky enough for a southern accent.
The most experimental track has to be “Rida Rida”, this song fosters a short film; a yacht bouncing up and down because of this combo of either a sample of running water or static, it’s hard to tell for me. The drum and the piano sample give this drifting motion. You’re right there with Key! on this boat, getting sprinkled by some rambunctious waves and he’s just fly as possible.
The only beats that weren’t up to par were the troubled pair, “Heart” and “I’m a Star”. They just seemed like quickly put together 8bit beats that don’t flow well with the rest of the album.
There are only four features on this album and they can be arranged from good, ok, to nah. Sonny Digital has a pretty nice verse on “Fashion Week”, he had a few bars in regards to fashion, talked about stomping a guy out in some new Bottegas, and had a nice play on fashion week by replacing it with weak.
Lil Yachty gives a cool verse, he was ok, he did what he was supposed to do. 448rasta, gave a pretty ignorable feature on “Heart”. Quadie Diesel had an offbeat feature on “I’m a Star” that was decent, I’d have a better outlook on his participation if they gave him a better beat.
For a first listen of both these artists, The Alpha Jerk makes for a great first impression, with very few skips. The running time on this album is only 40 minutes and the average song length is about two minutes and 30 seconds; all good songs say what needs to be said with no gristle attached and the few unimpressive ones don’t stick around to stink up the speakers.
I give The Alpha Jerk, 8 tabs of acid out of a whole Popeye’s sandwich, otherworldly but still hood.