They sound more like Folk Implosion than Three 6 Mafia, and they’re pretty great. Instead, these new tracks are more like depressive lo-fi indie rock with synths and guitars and breakbeat skitters. First came “Headboard” and “Here I Am,” and then came “Porcelain Slightly” and “Into A Life.” Those songs only qualify as rap music in the loosest possible definition. A few months ago, Lil Ugly Mane started releasing new tracks, two at a time, on Bandcamp. In the past decade-plus, Lil Ugly Mane has released a whole lot of music under a whole lot of different names, but he’s also a mercurial figure who goes quiet for long stretches of time. But that doesn’t seem to be what Lil Ugly Mane wants. If he wanted, Lil Ugly Mane could seriously capitalize on that whole thing right now. You could argue that the Richmond, Virginia rapper and producer Lil Ugly Mane pioneered that whole wave on his 2012 album Mista Thug Isolation. In recent years, there’s been a whole wave of hugely popular white underground rappers who talk about depression and self-harm and substance abuse over flickery, lo-fi beats that recall ’90s-era Three 6 Mafia.

Lil ugly mane bandcamp