Producers combining rage with digicore is not innovative in 2026 – Jane Remover’s notoriety would wrap such a lie in the wormiest dirt – but Slayr’s insistence on keeping said combination within the realms of hip hop, almost, is.
The eighteen-year-old, prodigious genre-blazer uses his insistence not to simply remind us of the genre’s origins, in which Lil Uzi Vert combined wide emo rap with wider, stereo-splitting compression, but go rage + digicore whilst emphasising contemporary rap fundamentals.
For instance, Slayr’s autotuned vocals on Brain Fog could pass for those of a pop-inclined trap rapper – who should I namedrop here? Lil Yachty? I could just say Lil Uzi Vert again… who cares… – whilst going wilder than Rugrats in 2003 with the digicore/electropop synth masses. Then, Hard Knock reverses the blueprint, rap-singing at the whistle, diving into triplet flows, before chiptune-style keys attack like angry pigeons.
But you can ignore all of that. That isn’t necessarily what makes Half Blood (BloodLuxe) – the deluxe edition of last year’s Half Blood mixtape – so special, not to mention, poppy trap is hardly a selling point. You could start with the fact that the deluxe version is basically its own album, unlike most similar reissues chocked full of bonus tracks, but really, if Slayr innovates, he does so by teasing rage as a genre where anything can happen.
The bruising bassline of Toxic spills into a crazed beat switch that mellows the track, chipmunks it, but not for the sake of an interlude – it still slaps, passionately. The song is protected from pop formalities that could’ve turned intrigue into eye rolls.
Slayr splashes paint over his rage canvas; shady synth leads like those of a ’90s dance classic on Daytona, which soon lose control like a crazy boi; joyous harmonies on Died But Came Back, like best friends at a party whilst equally outgoing synths burst through the compression like happy aliens through happier chests.
He takes the “mixtape” aspect seriously whilst applying his rage amendments. There is a constant segueing that heats up towards the tape’s climax. After Slayr is through with popping alarming impromptu falsettos on Brand New, the sound of Sonic the Hedgehog revving up his spin dash alerts an orchestra of synths that gallop like multicoloured horses into Racks, the final riff of which kookily, energetically leads into Paint a Picture.
Considering the copious amount of mixtapes Slayr has released over the past five years, it’s no surprise that he’s also mastered the basics. Flashout Freestyle takes the full brunt of fist-raising, gun-toting rage; a headbanging guitar breakdown confirming that it may as well be a metal song – but it ain’t your grandfather’s!
Ya know, you can just summarise by saying Slayr is more ambitious than your average rage artist, and BloodLuxe is more ambitious than the original Half Blood, but this wouldn’t be a review if we weren’t feasting on all the gooey bits, especially when all those gooey bits are so out-there.
Does anything and everything happen on BloodLuxe? No, but the evolution of Slayr – that we’re seeing unravel in front of our eyes, but most importantly ears – may lead us to that point in which anything and everything can happen on a Slayr album.
Ha.
Best tracks – Flashout Freestyle – Daytona – Toxic – Brand New – Died But Came Back
Rating – 7.5 out of 10
