'Twon the Illest Out: A Review of Antwon's "In Dark Denim"

I've probably rewritten the intro for this review about ten times now. Because, how do you start a review about an Antwon album? Sure, he's from the Bay and he'll make a cloud rap song, but than the next song will be an industrial, hardcore, punk influenced song. He's impossible to pigeonhole. People like to compare Antwon to Biggie and Rick Ross, but that seems just because of his voice. Antwon is more like Ghostface Killah circa Fishscale (had Ghostface been an internet rapper and released free mixtapes), a rapper who just goes balls out and will rap about anything or everything.

Across all of Antwon's projects (apart from My Westside Horizon) Antwon raps about sex, death, love, food, depression, thrift stores, drugs and even more. And what's so interesting about Antwon, is that he's able to pull off rapping about all of these things so successfully.

And now we have In Dark Denim. Is it Antwon's best release? Probably not, but that's because it's impossible to compare them. But In Dark Denim is a damn good mixtape.


The first thing that strikes you about In Dark Denim is the production. It's louder, noisier and more cluttered than it has been on past releases. But these beats suit his deep voice perfectly. The loud and chaotic "Dark Denim" produced by Froskees, the strange piano loops and soul samples of "Still Gaurded" produced by Cities Aviv and the grimy pulse of "Boomerang (3 Deep)" produced by Teams. With beats this good, you have to rap pretty well to not get lost in the mix with them. Which is exactly what Antwon does.

What's great about In Dark Denim is how fun of a mixtape it can be. "3rd World Grrl", produced by Froskees is a prime example of this. It's as close to a love song that Antwon gets on this tape, and has some hilarious lines like "two mexican pizzas / charge it to the game, girl / no visas." The sex jam "Werk 4 Me" finds the MC half of Shadowrunners, Himself The Majestic, dominating the track with an intensity. "It'll All Make Sense" is a nice breather from the rest of the noisy album, with it being a nice back in the day song. And on "Downtwon", Big Baby Gandhi shows up in the last 30 seconds to spit a rapid fire verse and disappear until who knows when.

But like Danny Brown's XXX, a mixtape that can be a lot of fun as well, In Dark Denim has a dark side to it. Once Antwon wakes up after all the sex, drugs and partying, he realizes what's wrong with himself and the world around him. To Antwon, the world is ending, as told by the lyrics on "Dark Denim", "in remembrance / all times are ending / I lay awake / inside of dark denim".

Sometimes, Antwon sounds like he's on the verge of madness, such as the B L A C K I E produced "Burn Away". This dark, noisy track has lines such as "childhood friends all hooked on meth" and "I wanna die / and I hate my life / I'll take any chance I get." By halfway through the song, Antwon reaches the end of his rope and just yells "ugh, fuck!".

On the closing track, "Still Gaurded" Antwon has lyrics similar to all his other songs about sex, but there's a much darker subtlety making it one of his most interesting songs yet. There are lines like "she got my pleasure zone so hard / I can't speak." But there's lines like "my thoughts so typical / they only distress me" and "rose petals touch my lips / feel like glass shards". "Still Gaurded" is a darker take on a friends with benefits song, where the woman he loves just has sex with him and moves onto his other friends "next week" so Antwon feels like "a throw away nigga".

It's great that we now have rappers like Antwon, Cities Aviv, B L A C K I E and Death Grips who make noisy, experimental hip hop. They're exciting figures of internet rap, just like Odd Future and Das Racist used to be. Antwon's layered songs about sex, love and depression are a pleasure to listen to and the internet needs more rappers like him.

In Dark Denim 
9/10
Recommended Tracks: Dark Denim, 3rd World Grrl, Rare 2000s, Burn Away, Still Gaurded
Download here.