Of the next-gen rap auteurs that characterize MIKE’s 10k label—El Cousteau, Sideshow, and Anysia Kym, to name a few—Niontay has his finger on the wildest and weirdest pulses. Since crashing into the scene with the bold-faced statement “Real hiphop,” the posse cut where he put Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE in some of their most audacious environments yet, Niontay has kept his trailblazer reputation up with projects like Dontay’s Inferno and Fada<3of$. His movements around the country—he was born in Milwaukee, raised in Central Florida, and now lives in Brooklyn—inform his geographically blurred sound. Chipmunk flows and equally chirpy beats bridge the gap between the Florida fast movement, Detroit cloud rap, and the hazier elements of New York’s young alternative scenes. With the help of 454, who hosts the tape via his Gatorface alter ego, Niontay lets the contrast between these disparate ideas and sounds ring loud on Soulja Hate Repellant.
The mixtape doesn’t veer away from Niontay’s established sounds, but it does probe their deepest and murkiest corners. Niontay’s style—his slurring, nasal voice that sometimes renders bars indecipherable—appears faster, blurrier, and more piercing. The beats are from a likeminded set of new-age underground producers like Surf Gang’s Harrison, young Raleigh-based hotshot Dylvinchi, and wild cards like Jay Critch collaborator Laron. “Rockoutcentury” quickly establishes the tape’s central idea with some quiet 808s and nostalgic synth pads that don’t vary much, but the tracks on Soulja Hate Repellant don’t stick around long enough to fatigue.
This lane can be surprisingly wide. The immense jump from “100days100nights,” a smatter of excited drums and synth patches that make for a perfect pregame soundtrack, to “3am@Tony’s,” a lethargic swamp of blown-out low-end, feels like a vivid look into Niontay’s hyperactive mind. This is a road where nothing stays in the same lane for too long. Wild swings—the baffling squeals on “soulja hate/ Mr.Havemyway x Mr.Beatdaroad” or the surprisingly fitting samples of the titular guitarist on “Mark William Lewis Flow”—are logical byproducts of the meeting of two minds as unrestrained as 454 and Niontay.
