Jesse Robinson has been awake for only about an hour, but he’s already lost his top grill and locked his keys in his car.
“I’ve just been taking L’s left and right today,” he says in characteristic slang, chalking up how he can’t catch a break. We’ve linked up in West Seattle, and the sun is just starting to set. “That’s why I don’t get up before eight.”
Better known as Nacho Picasso to his fans, these likely pot-induced mishaps barely register, as the rapper is riding a wave of success at the moment. A few months ago he signed to Surf School Recordings, which is helmed by producer Harry Fraud (who’s worked with the likes of Wiz Khalifa, Rick Ross, Mac Miller, Prodigy, and Pusha T, among others), and he’s been enjoying ever-increasing praise from outlets like Pitchfork and XXL.
Perhaps most important, Picasso recently dropped his latest album, Stoned & Dethroned (out now, Surf School Recordings). It’s Picasso’s fourth project with production duo Blue Sky Black Death, a highly anticipated follow-up to the team’s first three collaborations, released within a seven-month period in late 2011 and 2012. Together they’ve developed a unique brand of sinister gangsta rap that has become a staple of both the Seattle and underground music scenes.
“It’s our idea of what Seattle should sound like. It’s gloomy,” says Ryan Maguire, who goes by the name Kingston in BSBD. “Everything sounds purple and blue to me. Like ominous, rainy, drugs, depression, suicide.”
Stoned & Dethroned continues these themes, with titles like “’89 Dope Spot,” “In a Trance,” and “I’m to Blame for the Rain.” The tone is deliriously haunting, with tracks that underscore Nacho’s flippant misadventures—to be expected from a pair of producers who have worked on cuts featuring Gucci Mane, Cam’ron, and Deniro Farrar.
A self-proclaimed villain, Nacho contributes lines like “I’m the lion king/Lining up my coke hyenas” and “If hip-hop’s dead, bury it next to chivalry” that mesh effortlessly with BSBD’s spooky instrumentals, which could easily score a psychological thriller. Throughout, the rapper balances braggadocio with dark stoner humor to mirror the proverbial sex, drugs, and rock & roll that have come to characterize pop music. (Yes, there’s a joint on the album called “Sex/Drugs/Rock&Roll.”)
“It’s one of our darkest albums,” Nacho says. He goes on to wax poetic, in his cryptic way: “It’s not like I got overthrown, it’s just like I turned my back on the throne.”
He then goes on to casually remark that he’s “tired of immortality” and wouldn’t mind dying soon. Perhaps that’s a nod to the album’s 11th track, “Ghost,” when he raps about a city where people “only question life, never question death”—but certainly it’s a better option for him to stick around, at least, to enjoy the praise.
ateodoro@seattleweekly.com
