In the background of a gut-wrenching new album from Teller Bank$, there’s a preacher who sees himself in the biblical parable of Noah’s ark. He speaks of Noah’s perceived transmissions from God as though he’s experienced some of his own. “God will give you a vision that makes you look crazy,” the preacher says. “And it will have people talking about you, it will have people laughing at you.” He pauses for a crowd affirmation that never comes. “It will have [people] saying, ‘Why are you consumed in this stuff?’” Across NOAH, Bank$’ third album this year, he uses the story of Noah’s survival and the near-delusion of this preacher’s sermon as anchors for his own nimble, frantic storytelling. After spending the bulk of his life in Denver, Bank$ has come into his own in Des Moines, Iowa, a place so unlikely for a street rapper this titanic that I wouldn’t blame you for thinking I was bullshitting. “I seen the work of Jesus and demons in real life,” he spits as his nasal baritone goes haywire on “Genesis.” “I whipped the water and walked on it.”
NOAH is the umpteenth release of Teller Bank$’ career, but it solidifies him as one of the most lethal rappers out right now. A single listen will convince you this is the work of a man who has devoted countless hours (666,000, allegedly) sharpening his sword. Working again with the vast Northeastern producer group $$$–almost all of whom are individually credited on, like, every track–Bank$ and his preacher friend talk to God over spare keys and groaning nautical machinery. Drums thump at alluring boom-bap frequencies (“My Brother,” “Die Today”), or hardly thump at all, fading into malicious atmospheres that swirl with loose ephemera (“Genesis,” “Thou Shall Not”). Sometimes, to my chagrin, they rely on piano melodies that fly too close to Griselda’s orbit, or fall into dated trap patterns that cause Bank$ to drift and lose his footing. At its best, the production sets an eerie, hair-raising foundation, but it hardly makes or breaks this record in the way that Bank$’ performances do.
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