Kenny Mason: ‘RUFFS’
Atlanta rapper Kenny Mason’s flirting with blaring rock guitars on his debut, Angelic Hoodrat, made the album stick in a crowded and ultimately fraught year. Buoyed by his breakout song “Hit,” Angelic Hoodrat felt novel and emotionally deadly in the best way. Opener “Firestarter” took the pain music of the Southern rap tradition and infused it with a grisly, intentionally lo-fi vocal delivery. Later, brought in by a hound barking, “Metal Wings” played out true to its name as an intense declaration of Kenny’s story: “I barely had a thing.” The album was followed up by the Supercut edition in 2021. That offering felt like a step to the side, rather than forward, but was home to some of Kenny’s best work: “43,” “Play Ball,” and “Partments.”
RUFFS, released in September 2022, is another outgrowth of the Angelic Hoodrat blueprint, but this time, Kenny Mason sounds more lucid than ever. His voice rises up above the mix. His rapping and wailing feel more like brilliant gems than fragile glass. On “ZOOMIES,” Kenny ends the song by shouting, “I give off light!” It is a bright moment for a rapper who delves into the mire of angst. And he sounds unlike anyone else in Atlanta—that’s a blog darling, at least. That’s not to say Kenny cannot hang with his city’s sound. He taps Young Nudy for “SPIN N FLIP,” and their deranged styles mesh together well.
Kenny Mason’s music is precise. He makes the listener headbang and stank face on the same song. He has the pen of a true poet, dealing with questions of mortality and morality without ever coming across as pedantic. Over time, RUFFS has become the staple Kenny Mason project. It takes his perspective, as established on Angelic Hoodrat, and polishes it crystal clear. Here, the young artist exudes a loyalty and confidence—much like the dog motif he so loves. His voice is deceptively elastic. The lightness of “HALOS” contrasts well against the all out punk energy of “NOSEDIVE.” Kenny can hit his upper register and sound like a towering artist made of rubber bands, or he can sink into an earthy baritone.
There is a stronger commitment to raw energy on RUFFS. The aforementioned “NOSEDIVE” with Jean Dawson is a speaker-buster with breathless raps and a multitude of flows, all overtop this shattering production. It is the definition of a thrillride. “NOSEDIVE” is the RUFFS climax, but the emotional anchor comes a few tracks later on “SHELL.” With its classic sample and lax tempo, the song builds quickly to a contemplative realization: “They never showed me a Black God / Only a trap God.” One read of this line would suggest Kenny is positioning himself as holy. But the song and album are too much about humility and humanism. Ultimately, Kenny Mason is more concerned with elevating the socially discarded than himself. In that way, RUFFS feels mighty.