By Gary Suarez in Newsletter — Sep 24, 2025

Deniro Farrar Maintains A 'Stellar Reputation'

The Charlotte rapper's latest benefits from a proper sit-down listen. +reviews of Chester Watson, Lt Headtrip

Amid the whiplash of this past weekend's Jay Electronica conspiratorial leafletting campaign, consisting of three EP-sized addendums to his A Written Testimony album, Cardi B's criminally overdue and considerably overstuffed Invasion Of Privacy follow-up, and assuredly ephemeral offerings by the likes of Hunxho and LAZER DIM 700, it's understandable if hip-hop had you feeling a bit overwhelmed.

The alarming rate at which rap projects drop nowadays inevitably means making tricky prioritizations about what to listen to with one's limited free time or otherwise missing out on something else of substance or value amid the noise. We should be used to this by now, but with social media app addiction actively rotting our brains and a political dumpster fire erupting roughly every few hours, few if any of us have the ability to slow things down for ourselves. Yet if you could hit that imaginary pause button and really sit down with a new record capable of rewarding such self-discipline, you couldn't do much better with what's left of this September than Deniro Farrar's Stellar Reputation.

In the decade-or-so since the Charlotte rapper's VICE Media-backed Rebirth EP, which rather presciently paired him with erstwhile Raider Klansman Denzel Curry and indie vanguard producer Child Actor, his rap craft has aged like climate controlled cellar wine. Though his release pace became noticeably more sporadic in recent years, apparently due in partto a creative crisis of faith that sent him to barber school, his return-to-form this past spring The Shepherd indicated that the wait was about to be rewarded. Indeed, the 2025 iteration of Farrar may differ from the promising voice on 2013's The Patriarch, but the enhanced rasp in his voice now amounts to more than the mere passage of time.

Marking the artful Cult Rap cat's second joint project of the year with producer Marc Spano, the aptly-named Stellar Reputation succinctly encapsulates the two North Carolinians' hip-hop practice, perhaps more so than their preceding The Shepherd. Whether reporting live and direct from Manhattan's Lower East Side on "Resilient" or flexing a teflon-quality invulnerability on "Jet Lag," the vibes remain immaculate yet intentionally gritty via carefully crafted lyricism and deeply groovy soulsonics. Farrar simply glides over "Being Broke Ain't Gangsta" and "$100 Cheesesteak," two doggedly honest monologues about financial realities–in the rap game or otherwise–eloquently delivered in the proverbial winners circle. His sartorial prowess bursts through too on "Goyard Toiletry Bag" and "Prada Open Toe Sandals," both bolstered by Spano's downright dapper beats. Compared to the commitment presented by industry-standard 20+ song hip-hop projects (including ones spread out across multiple concurrent EPs, Mr. Electronica), Stellar Reputation's comparatively compact duration means but a modest ask of listeners. Brother, can you spare a half-hour?

Catch up on prior episodes before the season premiere this Fall.

Chester Watson, Psychic Warfare Department

(buy it / stream it)

Even on a label as compellingly curatorial as culture writer Jeff Weiss' indie POW Recordings, Chester Watson stands out as a uniquely unpredictable yet somehow familiarly lived-in talent. A compilation, in essence, of instrumentals and vocal tracks produced entirely by the artist, his Psychic Warfare Department seeks to exist in the same vaunted lane as Alchemist's 1st Infantry or J Dilla's The Shining. Much like those storied showcases, his blends a steady stream of intricately constructed beatscapes with features that tether it to some of rap's most exceptional. Here, we get Archibald Slim as drawling savant on the brightened-up "magic or miracle," lojii as orphic street poet on the muted "mystery," and Gabe 'Nandez as courtside pundit on the jazz-inflected "hexagram."

The moments without such guests actually amplify a sense of the occult predilections behind the project's creation, with "curses," "spellcaster" and the eerie bap closer "black opal" bringing a certain Vincent Price panache to the supernatural proceedings. When Watson seizes the mic on "hometown hero," his words at first sound deceptively like standardized rapper brags. It's only as the track progresses through its deliberately cluttered audio warble that its layered nature emerges, with subliminal points delicately if purposefully revealed.

Lt Headtrip & Steel Tipped Dove, Hostile Engineering

(buy it / stream it)

Known in select indie rap circles for his prominent role in the We Are The Karma Kids crew, grizzled veteran Lt Headtrip steps into the Fused Arrow dojo to benefit from Steel Tipped Dove's advanced electronic ways. With this notable new pivot, fans of his fellow WATKK alumnus Duncecap or distinguished Rhymesayers rappers of old will quickly catch his cadence, a genuinely earnest if willfully verbose display of clever emceeing that aims to launder ideas. Described as an exploration of our divisive society, Hostile Engineering unearths lost gems from the brutalist rubble of resistance. Given recent American current events, the security state sacrilege of "Eatin' Every Breadcrumb" feels unsettlingly of-the-moment, as does the surgically cutting out-of-network missive "0 Days Since Last Accident." Solid cuts like "Coulda Had It All" and "Fun Don't Stop" skewer sociopolitical buyer's remorse and bro-bait hustle culture, respectively, with Dove's instrumentals more lithe and lucid than his outré reputation suggests.