One pass through and I’m shell shocked. 808s crater the studio like blasts from a C130’s 100 mm. City is live and tonight we’re laying down vocals on “Came up.” It’s hot in here. No, really the SSL is heated up, a furnace of beats, all systems engaged, dynamics in, EQs at the ready, we’re taking off and not coming back without a hit.

Now,we’re in it, stack, rewind, “same-spot?”, adlibs pile-up over doubles, a thick soup of beats and rhymes. There’s something guttural about his voice, overdriven like a speaker slashed with a blade. The rhythm in the studio often tells you how the tracks will turn out. Rapid fire precision comes out confident. Slow and pensive, you end up with something brooding, otherworldly. City is raw, writing on the fly, the result sounds like it might come off the tracks at any moment. Frenetic, frantic you can tell he wants it and wants you to ride this train along with him. To the bar car, please.