numerology

LAST SUMMER, IN THE HEAT OF THE PANDEMIC, INDY HIP-HOP ARTISTS SEAN “OREO” JONES, SIRIUS BLVCK (AKA NIQ ASKREN), AND SEDCAIRN ARCHIVES (AKA DAVID ADAMSON) JOINED FORCES TO CREATE THE GROUP 81355.

Although they had worked together in the past, 81355 (pronounced “bless”) gave them the opportunity to make their first start-to-finish collaboration: This Time I’ll Be of Use. Recorded in just three days, the album is simultaneously electronic and hypnotic, danceable and mystical. It’s a I-don’t-think- I’ve-heard-anything-like-this sound that Archives describes as “something kind of alien” and Blvck calls “haunting.” And then there are the lyrics—no-holds-barred reflections on the pandemic, Black struggles, and capitalism. “We talk about seeing cars on fire in the street, but it wasn’t like we went into the process wanting to touch on those things,” says Jones. “It wasn’t intentional, but we wrote this last July. The country was scorching, and you couldn’t escape everything. It was right in front of you.”

Jones, a gifted lyricist, likes to say he “makes hip-hop for people with unreasonable expectations of what hip-hop can and should be.” This Time I’ll Be of Use is no different. It’s genre-bending and uncategorizable. Is it hip-hop? Definitely. Rap? Yes. But “Anointed” is reminiscent of electronic music, and the beginning of “Thumbs Up” sounds like the default ringtone on an iPhone buried somewhere in your purse. And then there’s the opening track, “Capstone.” Blvck likens it to , the book-turned-movie-turnedboard game. “It sounds like what could play when someone finds the game. Like, you find it and you just hear ‘Capstone’ in the back.”