THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “Chicago hip-hop outfit Angry Blackmen — Quentin Branch and Brian Warren — have been stretching their arms and tapping into different sounds since they smashed onto the scene with their debut single OK! in 2017.
That track was a prime introduction starring two emcees showing they deserve to wield the microphone and do so with good cause. Barely a month later, ABM released the sophomore single Riot!, offering a complete shift in sound that still housed the foundation set in OK! A few years later, the duo dropped their debut project Talkshit!, which saw them amass the following they have today. Deathbomb Arc noticed the duo’s talent and nabbed them for their roster. From there, ABM focused on honing their craft and expanding their range on two EPs. Now ABM are back with a full-length entitled The Legend Of ABM, a 30-minute coming-of-age narrative about black men navigating this wilderness known as North America.
The Legend Of ABM immediately smacks the listener in the eardrum, leaving no second wasted and jumping straight to the point. The 11-track adventure truly presents an expression of hip-hop that we haven’t seen before, infusing multiple sounds with the 50-year old genre. To go even deeper, Branch and Warren are teaching a masterclass in top-notch poetic lyricism, creating both accessible and mind-bending music.
Opening track Stanley Kubrick has both heroes shattering the beat with their braggadocio for what is just the appetizer to prepare the listener for what’s to come in the next 10 tracks. Sabotage tells the story of two Black men hustling through the trenches of capitalism and the effect that this journey has on them.
While the album exudes catchy wordplay and spine-splitting production, if you lift up the hood, ABM are spinning a tale of depression, existentialism and self-reflection that isn’t always pretty. Dead Men Tell No Lies is another mutation in sound for the duo, where the industrial sounds clash, violently yet perfectly together with a blistering hook harkening to the end of time. The track features New Jersey’s Fatboi Sharif, whose haunting verse adds to the hopeless scenery ABM’s set throughout the album.
Warren and Branch’s raw poetry educates the listener of the pre-apocalyptic world we’re already living in throughout this project. Personal anecdotes of tragedy and survival over soundscapes created from the future provide a passionate yet introspective look at the world-at-large. The Legend Of ABM is not an excursion for the weak. The production is meant to snap your spine in half, while the lyrics from Quentin and Brian are infused with pathos and relatable to anyone simply trying to survive.”
