Ohio-born rapper Anthony Mills has maintained a steady stream of nonchalant yet lyrically fire releases under his Toni Sauna moniker for a few years now. One half of Wildcookie, the ambiguous hip-hop/jazz duo known for their 2011 album Cookie Dough, Sauna has been in the game for decades under various guises but his latest EP has reputedly been ten years in the making. Produced by eCUSSIONIST, 8EEFour has been meticulously crafted across different continents. Despite the amount of time that some of these tracks have been gestating for, each sounds as fresh as the one before, proving that some things are well worth waiting for.
The EP starts strong with ‘DYEMAN’, which opens with a consistent beat that builds as Sauna’s vocals creep in, with the track’s hook circling round and round. The repeated synth backdrop almost acts as a cosmic drone, keeping everything grounded as Sauna spits his verses. ‘Da Fuq U’, in a similar way, places Sauna’s voice front and centre, as we get a fast and furious two minutes of his unmediated flow, accompanied by funk-infused basslines courtesy of industry favourite Nate Jones.
The project’s lead single ‘Gaddafi’ highlights the influence of beats and melodies drawn from traditional Arab music, which appear throughout the album. The track’s ardent hook appears over and over, chant-like, as if picking up steam with each iteration: “gaddafi / back the fuck up off me / chocolate with the toffee / early morning coffee / golden is the offspring / questioning the pissin / when the king show up missin”.
‘Spys phone’ is another high point on the EP, the track beginning with what sounds like an old Middle Eastern or North African ballad, which crackles and fades, meshing into Sauna’s warped vocal line. It’s an excellent example of the rapper’s rapid blink-and-you’ll-miss-it wordplay, with certain phrases jutting out unexpectedly when the beat pauses, settling back in as eCUSSIONIST’s jazzy production continues. We get this on the final track ‘PINNOCHIO’S NOSE KNOWS’ too, the recurring vocal sample twisting around Sauna’s dense and raw lyricism.
Elsewhere, there’s unpredictable sonic influences, like the UK Garage-esque beat on ‘Re-Order Dyet Barz (R The Taysteeest Ov Wraps)’ and the celestial sounding synth instrumental towards the end of ‘HEATHERS’, which provides a really striking contrast to the song’s dark and erratic opening.
The combination of Sauna’s unwavering stream-of-consciousness freestyles and eCUSSIONIST’s tight and sonorous production give 8EEFour its real edge. Across seven tracks, you get classic hip-hop enlivened by rich and interesting samples that underline a strong international and forward-facing ethos.
