STONE COLD

PEPCEE - a rapper affiliated with the hip hop collective BACKROOM and a member of the Kansai-based crew MADS, active since the early 2010s - finally releases his debut album, STONE COLD, after a long career in the underground.
During the Blog Era, zip files such as Boom Shot EP (2011) and Soul Surfer EP (2012) - the latter released in collaboration with RADOO (now known as Young Yujiro) - were scattered across the web as free downloads. These releases quietly infiltrated the iTunes libraries of dedicated diggers, while PEPCEE continued to leave a lasting impact through releases as part of MADS and BACKROOM, as well as countless guest verses that consistently hit heads hard.
On STONE COLD, PEPCEE once again delivers verses where truth and fiction blur together, rhymed with an almost deranged intensity. His words are discharged instinctively and without ornament, like a wild animal hunting its prey.
All tracks are fully produced by BACKROOM beatmaker YOSHIMARL, who worked behind the scenes, painting every sonic detail himself. Created in solitude within a snowbound studio, detached from any obligation to the scene, the beats intertwine with PEPCEE's verses and dismiss empty binaries such as Trap vs. Boom Bap or Real vs. Fake with a cold laugh.
Guest appearances come from Maligno Blain, an unsigned hype from Osaka and longtime collaborator; Young Yujiro, founder of HIBRID ENTERTAINMENT and a driving force behind DIRTY KANSAI; KROUD, a member of MADS who also performs as part of Low Class Session; and GO, also from MADS, whose recent rise as a beatmaker has been impossible to ignore. All four are credited not merely as features, but as accomplices.
The mist descending from the frozen summit of snow-covered peaks drifts into the city below, stealing hope from its people and feeding their unease.