The first time I listened to Phiik and Lungs—some of their work together is collected in a series called Another Planet—it was the first time I’d been glad to feel as if my brain was misfiring. It became clear to me that all the data would not compute on the first pass, which is how the world at large has felt for some time now. Phiik and Lungs are childhood friends who grew up mostly on Long Island, and over the past few years, they have distinguished themselves within the thriving New York underground. Both members cite their relationship with AKAI SOLO as formative, not only as stylists but in terms of the work ethic required to hone their craft.
The Creative Process of Phiik and Lungs
“Writer’s block is not fucking real,” Lungs says. At one point during our conversation, he shows me the gigantic bags lining the wall of one room in his house, each one stuffed with notebooks full of rhymes that will likely never be used. This tireless approach defines their output. On their songs, each MC raps what sound like impossibly dense walls of text. It is often mistaken for double-time rapping, but it is more often than not simply unending.
Their upcoming album, People Are Not Your Friends, is produced entirely by steel tipped dove. It sounds like an old robot found in a crawlspace and shocked back to life. For as delightfully considered as their work is, the new LP scans as a natural consequence of a worldview where everything is interesting and most things are ominous.
Working with steel tipped dove
When asked about working with a producer, Lungs notes the relief of taking his hands off the wheel. “It’s nice because Dove has this shit together,” he explains. “Normally I record, mix, and master everything for all our shit. Because in the past, almost every time that I’ve outsourced something to somebody else, I’ve had to just go back and do the whole thing over again. But with Dove it’s just nice.”
Defining the Sound
The duo’s vocal styles have evolved significantly over the years. Phiik recalls a pivotal piece of advice from Lungs: “Rap from your chest.” This simple instruction made a massive difference in their delivery. Lungs compares his own rhythmic approach to the punching style of Ip Man. “It’s not fast. It’s relentless. He just punches motherfuckers like 10,000 times. That’s what heads get confused: I don’t want to be Twista.”
Ultimately, their goal is to capture the essence of the current era. As Lungs puts it, “If everything just blows up and the apocalypse happens and aliens find this shit, I want them to be able to listen to the thing and be like, I understand the vibe, the dread of the time period that they lived in.”