Infinity Knives and Brian Ennals Keep It Concerningly Real on “Sometimes, Papi Chulo”
The Baltimore duo triumphs over depression and anxiety with a heavy cumbia rap
When I first heard rapper Brian Ennals and producer Infinity Knives in 2022, I thought, Oh, the government’s definitely tapping their phones. The Baltimore duo had just released their breakout album King Cobra, a raucous project filled with lines like “Nation of Islam is feds/Malcolm X found out, and that’s why he’s dead” set to clanging drums and Speed Racer-level synths. But as unapologetic about the state of the world as Ennals’ lyrics were, the album’s transgressive feeling owed as much to his willingness to be tender and personal, and music as eclectic in sound as it is in perspective. Songs like “A Melancholy Boogie” pit Ennals’ well wishes to his late father against static-y bits of electro-funk, while “Sambo’s Last Words” is a synth dirge full of life lessons and blunt realizations (“I just realized the American flag the same color as cop lights”). There are people behind these tracks, making them more than just quotables ready for the front of a T-shirt.
