Chicago rapper Adamn Killa knows his approach is unorthodox. On his new album, I Am Adamn, he begins standout track “Roof Roof” by imagining how people might criticize his style on the mike: “If I was you I would hate me too / The way I sing it sound like Hebrew / Making all that noise like a mongoose.” Adamn half-sings these self-caricaturing lines in such a soporific slur that I occasionally have to pause the song and go back to make sure I’ve understood him. But the instrumental, by producer UV Boi, brings out the playful defiance in Adamn’s rapping—he comes across like a weight lifter getting motivated by scanning himself in a full-length mirror for potential weaknesses. Descriptions that might sound like insults turn into jokes at everybody else’s expense.