In recent years, the Richmond, Virginia rapper Fly Anakin has become an underground institution who cranks out new music at an alarming rate. That whole rise reached a crescendo earlier this year, when Fly Anakin released Frank, which was officially and somewhat absurdly marketed as his debut album. But even after releasing a big-deal record like that, Fly Anakin is going to keep putting out new music whenever the spirit moves him. That’s exactly what he did this past weekend.

On Friday, Fly Anakin released the new EP mirrors_episode​.​2. The Mount Vernon producer and longtime Mutant Academy affiliate ewonee produced the whole record, and as the title implies, it’s not the first time that they’ve worked together. Way back in 2014, ewonee produced all of Fly Anakin’s EP mirrors_episode​.​1. Since then, ewonee has become a prolific Bandcamp beatmaker, and he also teamed up with Yungmorpheus for the 2021 album Thumbing Thru Foliage.

On mirrors_episode​.​2, Fly Anakin goes in over ewonee’s hazy, scattered beats. Together, rapper and producer have arrived at a smeared lurching sound that seems like an ideal soundtrack for getting stoned, lying down on the ground, and staring at nothing. On Bandcamp, Fly Anakin writes, “for the ones that know, I’m running victory laps right now gang, this shit easy now so I’m here to put on for us.” Stream mirrors_episode​.​2 below.

mirrors_episode​.​2 is out now, and you can get it at Bandcamp. Read our recent interview with Fly Anakin here.

50