As Gorgeous Children's “Caked Up” revvs up and Face Vega lurks hard in the background humming the chorus “all my niggas caked up” to himself, an eerie setting is in place that permeates the duration of the debut. By the screwed-chorus that declares “tomorrow ain't promised so we live for the moment”, producer Gila Monster is in full John Carpenter score mode; no turning back from the darkside.
The occult fascination in rap has its benchmark record. Spaceghostpurrp and his RVIDXR KLVN appropriate the esoteric symbols into their black clothing. Danny Brown and A$AP Rocky stand among it in their videos. To borrow a quote from Bane, Gorgeous Children were born in the shadows. The comparisons to the occult days of 3-6 Mafia mixtapes, or more recently Lil' Ugly Mane and Spaceghostpurrp, are unavoidable. Gorgeous Children let their influences beyond the pagan and clandestine seap through, as Face Vega utilizes Ghostface Killah's “you goddamn right I fuck fans” line as the refrain to “Black Palms” and dubs his cup of lean “that muddy stuff” on “Muddy Waters”, named after the Redman record. On “Secret Indictments” Face Vega sips the same champagne Camp Lo poured out on “Sparkle”, but keeps an eye over his shoulder for the black helicopters Non-Phixion warned us of.
Gorgeous Children's self-titled debut is streaming at their Bandcamp and available for download here.
