“Sheeps…wolves. What do they have in common?”
It’s with that pondrance that Austin rapper/producer Curbside Jones offers Wolves’ Clothing, a soulful concept EP that explores the inverse of a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Jones’ project explores a fantastic narrative of a sheep stepping into a shop and adorning the wolves’ fabric, but in a deeper sense, it aims to analyze what happens when the ostracized and preyed upon decides to the adopt pathology of their oppressors.
On “Been Wolf,” Jones recalls staring down at his close friend in a casket feeling like “a sheep” because he couldn’t “transfer life into his cold hands,” a capsule of commentary not only about colloquially deemed “wolves“ who terrorize impoverished neighborhoods with gun violence, but what it means to be in an environment where not living with that reckless abandon is considered a “sheep-like“ weakness.
The rest of the project raises similar existential musings through the lens of Jones’ own life, as he speaks on rocky romantic relationships, arguing on “resistance and commitment” with his mother and being “blessed with clues” but not “understanding the context” as he so eloquently states on “Sheperd’s Pie.” Jones rides a range of production with his urgent delivery, from the warm, idyllic keys on “Shepherd’s Pie,” to the eerie vocal flip on “SHEEP SZN,” where he rues “heard if you ain’t got nothin’ to say, just add some autotune on it/talk about how you pushin’ yay and then act a coon on it.”
Jones’ iconoclastic mindset ultimately uses the experimental, electrohop soundscape to deplore life as a wolf, surmising we must “shift the paradigm” before the sheep harkens to further confirmation his mother gave him as a child.
You can stream and purchase Wolves’ Clothing below.
