Now that moving around big chunks of data has become so ridiculously fast, easy, and cheap, music’s entered a golden age of collaboration. Nowhere is this more apparent than in hip-hop, which has a well-documented predilection for guest appearances, team-ups, and other techniques for keeping fans engaged that it happens to share with superhero comics. The fact that all a rapper needs now to jump on a track is a microphone, a laptop, and a wifi signal has only ramped up the intensity of that affection. If you were to draw a chart mapping the on-record connections between the hottest 100 rappers working right now the individual lines linking them would bleed together into one big, undifferentiated mass.
One unexpected result of this craze for collabos is what’s starting to look like an arms race of rap supergroups with the most bizarre lineups possible. Until very recently the standard-bearer for the wackiest of them has been Three Loco, the trio comprised of Internet sensation Riff Raff, comedian Andy Milonakis, and former MTV VJ (and star of Karate Dog) Simon Rex. But Three Loco’s lost the number-one spot now that LA underground rapper Murs, Bad Brains bassist Darryl Jenifer, and Ego Trip magazine cofounder Sacha Jenkins have teamed up to form a new group called the White Mandingos.
The group has a full-length entitled The Ghetto Is Tryna Kill Me coming out June 11 on Fat Beats. They’ve already unveiled its titular first single, and it’s every bit as weird and loud and full of shit-talk as the lineup would suggest. You can listen after the jump.