* Brooke Bailey * Blanca Lopez * Olivia Jones * Terricka Cason Apathy Previews New Album, Produces For Cypress Hill

Author: Paul W Arnold

Wordplay aficionado, and leader of the post-2000 incarnation of Connecticut-originated collective the Demigodz, Apathy spoke last week to HipHopDX regarding his soon-to-be-released sophomore album, Wanna Snuggle? The former Atlantic Records artist also addressed during his discussion with DX recent complaints by some artists of their business dealings with Babygrande Records, the label that distributed Ap’s official album debut, 2006’s Eastern Philosophy.

"Everybody takes themselves way overly serious nowadays. I was just tired of that, man. It’s cliché,” Apathy told HipHopDX of his decision to title his new solo effort Wanna Snuggle? “And so, we got that idea for the [album cover] image with the snake wrapped around the rat… For a snake to pose that question to a rat, ‘Wanna snuggle?,’ it’s just like [a] funny thing. People are gonna hear that title and say, ‘Oh my God that sounds incredibly soft.’ And then they see the image. There’s a line on my album [on 'Hell’s Angel'] that said, ‘Rats, I know a couple / I’ll catch you in the jungle / 'Cause I’m a boa constrictor muthafucka, wanna snuggle?’ So, that’s what it is. [The title] was based a lot around the artwork, and about really not wanting to take things too seriously and really having a title that attracts attention.

For nearly 15 years Ap hasn’t needed eye-grabbing artwork or eyebrow-raising titles to attract attention to his remarkable talent. Joining the Demigodz in late 1994 and making his official debut to the masses via Jedi Mind Tricks’ first full-length, The Psycho-Social LP, in 1997, it was with turn-of-the-century 12” solo singles, and subsequent albums masquerading as mixtapes like 2003’s It’s The Bootleg Muthafuckas! and ’04 follow-up Where’s Your Album?!, that brought Apathy’s brand of awe-inspiring lyricism to the world’s attention.

And now Ap is set to once again make the world take notice with the release of Wanna Snuggle?, a 21-track collection of classic ’90s-flavored boom-bap tracks with mostly Soul sample flourishes. Neck-snapping beats and rewind-worthy rhymes like the jaw-dropping lyrical beatdown “I’m A Demigod” are heard throughout Ap’s latest long-player.

Officially only his sophomore album, Apathy feels the release of Wanna will already mark his second classic full-length offering, as he explained to DX, “If Eastern Philosophy was more like Cuban Linx and Illmatic, which I was really inspired off of – and Enta Da Stage – then Wanna Snuggle? is more like Midnight Marauders or The Main Ingredient, along those lines. I do have some really eerie, hard, grimy joints on there, but a majority of the album is really smooth, chill, [and] heavy on the concepts and the stories.
Phonte joins Ap on one of the album’s more chill moments, the soul-sampling smoothie “True Love”. New Ap affiliate B-Real and fellow Demigod Celph Titled bring a far less chill vibe as they lick off lyrical shots on the classic Cypress-sounding “Shoot First”. Additional notable appearances on Wanna Snuggle? come courtesy of J-Live on the horn-heavy head-nodder “This Is The Formula” and Demigod Emilio Lopez on the smooth ode to America’s smallest state “Rhode Island.”

But maybe the most noteworthy guest on Ap’s latest LP is Chip-Fu of early ‘90s sensations the Fu-Schnickens, who surprisingly lends his crooning talents to the chorus of the arguable album apex, “Mind Ya Business.”

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