Stream Gabe ‘Nandez’s Stark, Thoughtful New EP SevenStream Gabe ‘Nandez’s Stark, Thoughtful New EP Seven

The rapper Gabe ‘Nandez is the son of a UN Peacekeeper, so he grew up in different corners of the globe: Tanzania, Palestine, Haiti. Musically, though, ‘Nandez sounds deeply rooted in New York, the city where he was born and where he’s currently based. His sound is an abstract, heady take on slash-your-face ’90s rap; it’s intense and incisive and spaced-out, all at once.

These days, plenty of other rap figures, like Roc Marciano and the Griselda crew, are coming up with updated takes on ’90s New York sounds, but Gabe ‘Nandez isn’t really a part of that whole cohort. Instead, his sound is artier and more oblique — something more akin to zoned-out outsiders like Ka or recent collaborator Elucid.

Gabe ‘Nandez has been building his name in recent years with a number of hard and thoughtful records, and he released the Ox EP back in February. Today, he follows it with Seven, a new EP produced entirely by Roper Williams and Tony Seltzer. Armand Hammer’s Elucid appears on the brain-breaking single “Coupé Decalé.” The whole thing is very worthy of your attention, and you can stream it below.

Seven is out now on POW Recordings. (Full disclosure: I’m friendly with POW founder Jeff Weiss. That’s not why I’m posting this, though.)