At only 26, Pi’erre Bourne is already one of the most distinctive producers in modern rap. By making his drum programming extremely crisp and system-friendly, he gives himself the space to get weird with everything else, using seasick synths, water-damaged samples and instruments that sound like they’re filtering in on a light breeze from another session entirely. He has since distanced himself from 6ix9ine, but the ethereal, jaundiced beat he used for the disgraced rapper’s track Gummo was the perfect foil to the shouted lyrics; his extensive work with Playboi Carti is exceptional; and this year he made On God, the best track on Kanye West’s Jesus Is King, its tapestry of synth lines evoking a mind wrestling with earth and heaven at once.
His other major project of 2019 was Sli’merre, his album with Atlanta rapper Young Nudy. Nudy’s lyrics are pretty basic fare about drugs, women and money, though he has a knack for nagging melody, making Hot Wings and Shotta sound like skipping rope chants for kids who lost their innocence way too early. But even the most ordinary lyrics are made queasily odd by Bourne’s backings, like the firearm-fixated Extendo, given horror-movie dread with haunting synthetic strings.
There are good verses from the two breakthrough rappers of the year, Megan Thee Stallion and DaBaby, while 21 Savage helps make Mister the standout track. It’s another example of Bourne’s chafing stylistics: Nudy is sweet and earnest while Savage is jaded and matter-of-fact; both of them rap about bleak topics such as hustling and empty sex, but are surrounded by the pure loveliness of Bourne’s flute melodies. That song – and indeed the whole album – is like an update of G-funk, headnodding in a cloud of smoke.
