Cash Cobain Strikes While His Sound is Red-Hot on ‘Play Cash Cobain’

“Rump Punch,” an early single from the Bronx drill Cassanova Cash Cobain’s new album Play Cash Cobain, rides a glittering piano riff layered over the rapper-producer’s signature drums—boisterous and staggered, the air in between each drop packed with a sly romantic tension. Cash is a blueprint for a new kind of rap-r&b crossover. Lyrically, he’s able to turn top-tier raunchiness into something smoother (Pussy taste like rum punch,” he cooly raps on the track), all while he builds out a sonic universe that’s taking the rap world by storm.  Cash’s sound has been bubbling up in rap circles around New York for some time. So much so, that “Rump Punch” samples a previously unreleased Cash Cobain song, a kind of meta flex possible when you’re as prolific a producer as Cash Cobain.  

Play Cash Cobain, a follow-up to last year’s Pretty Girls Love Slizzy, arrives at a moment when the Bronx-born producer’s sound is as red-hot as anything the rap world’s seen in some time. Quavo arrives on album opener “Slzzy Hncho 2” like Cash’s long lost twin, the slinky, rhythmic flow he perfected with the Migos slotting into Cobain’s production style with ease. Similarly, Don Toliver sounds enlivened on the track, tapping into the chemistry he and Cash exhibited on their smash single “ATTITUDE.” here, Toliver is more subdued, his impressive vocal range arriving at its most dynamic over Cash’s boisterous, undulating drum loops.

“Problem,” the eight-minute posse-cut featuring everyone from Big Sean to Lil Yachty, is a case study of Cash Cobain’s ability to conjure moments that take command of our attention. The song features a sample of the rising rapper Laila!’s viral On The Radar freestyle looped to almost surrealist terrain, while a who’s who of rappers young and old volleying various boasts over the song’s hypnotic and booming drum loop. While Play Cash Cobain leans heartily on the producer’s signature style, a sensual take on the bravado of New York drill, Cash explores a refreshing range of new sounds too. During a recent visit to Rolling Stone’s offices, he said the song “Luv It,” was inspired by Soca music. The song, a pitch-perfect crossover hit, proves how effortlessly Cash Cobain can construct sonic universes. Throughout the album, he shows how singular a voice he is in today’s rap landscape