Music

APB’s Badass Doom-Rap Single “Rome” Features Jessie Reyez and Guitar Solos

If you’re gonna stage a comeback, make sure you do it like a hero returning from the apparent dead and come in holding a sword and wearing a big red cape. That being said, you’d look pretty dumb for dressing like a 300 character, so you can just be APB and make music that just sounds like fighting your way out of demons. The Scarborough rap duo’s last album came out in 2014, and their reintroduction single “Rome” is a great primer on what you missed.

Premiered on Zane Lowe’s Beats 1 show, “Rome” is a great example of that crushing, doomy Toronto hip-hop sound: all looming sub-bass, tongue-frying raps, and screaming guitar solos. Recent JUNO winner Jessie Reyez turns up as both hook singer and as a ghostly background element of the beat. She exists at the intersection of a bunch of genres and is also a veteran of Toronto’s urban scene, so her feature here makes almost too much sense. Watch the glitchy, downtown-set video for “Rome” above.

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