Left Brain’s new mixtape, Mind Gone Volume 1, is rough by design. That’s a good thing: It’s instrumental elements are layered jaggedly, and its off-kilter trap songs bubble with intensity that don’t dwell on the hangups of mastering or marketability.
“Run It Back” is a prime example of how Left Brain’s purposeful lack of polish turns the bass/drum rattle and earworm hooks of more conventional rap songs upside-down. The Odd Future MC is joined by L.A. rapper L-Dog, who starts the track with a bar great in its simplicity: “Got the gas in the tank and got the gas in the blunt.” That directness is almost an affront to Young Thug disciples like Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert, who prize their flow and enunciation over the cleverness or meaning of the words themselves. Left Brain’s hook is similarly on-the-nose and pleasantly outdated: Slathered in Auto-Tune, he raps about Reggie Bush and Emmitt Smith, as if their glory days were in the now and present. This repeated reference creates a juxtaposition with producer Eskay’s more modern elements of muted percussion and a flattened violin loop. These anachronistic qualities make “Run It Back” like a loving time capsule for a receding era of rap, raw and unfettered.
