Not enough hip-hop collaborations in the last year have been working off of an epic instrumental template that engages listeners with the same intensity that a verse can and does, and I think this is something that Neff Nuffsed was determined to do something about when he called up Mr L-BO and Mic B to make “Stranger Things” recently. Teamed with two players of an equal caliber to his own talent, Neff Nuffsed unleashes an entrancing rap track that divides our attention between a chaotic backdrop and a sleek foreground, the results forming a contrast-based eruption that any hip-hop enthusiast can appreciate this winter.

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The man of the hour here is intent on showing us just how much of an assassin he is from the front of the mix, but it’s worth noting that his two collaborators do a fine job of putting up some dazzling support in their own right. There’s a fluidity to the volley in this joint performance that tells me they weren’t freestyling this project for a second – this is too well-timed and elegantly synchronized to issue damage to anything in the trio’s path for anything else to be the case, and that’s obvious even to more novice critical ears.

Though it’s not too bombastic in its imagery, the music video for “Stranger Things” is nonetheless a juggernaut that uses its large and in charge presentation to make a big impact on us right out of the gate. The actual potency of the performance we witness here is what makes the video so jarring in spots and nothing else, and from where I sit, that kind of an implied aesthetical influence is something that simply hasn’t been in the fold for most of the independent hip-hop to gain steam on either side of the dial in the last year or two.

As I pointed out before, the chemistry between these guys is incendiary from the start, and while the harder side of trap music relies on these kinds of collaborations to feel authentic and removed from the commerciality of a swelling interest in the genre and its biggest players, nothing about this single or its video feel stock to me. It’s easy to throw together a bunch of visual components and cartoonish concepts too often associated with the music of Black America in 2020 and call it a rap video – but Neff Nuffsed is an artist, and disrespecting his craft with that kind of ignorant construct doesn’t seem like something that even crossed his mind.

“Stranger Things” definitely caught my attention this month for a couple of different reasons, but chief among them is its originality and creators who seem totally disinterested in following the beat of someone else’s drum at the moment. I might not have been following Neff Nuffsed prior to getting into this piece, but I can guarantee you that he and his work will not be drifting from my radar now that I’ve got a good sample of what his talents can produce.

John McCall