ARMAND HAMMER - GOYA GUMBANI

“Armand Hammer raps from another dimension, it’s on us to catch up”

Armand Hammer, the groundbreaking NYC rap duo of ELUCID and billy woods, announces its eighth studio album, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips, out September 29th via Fat Possum Records. The duo’s new project arrives two and a half years after Haram, their labyrinthine collaboration with The Alchemist, and is introduced with their lead single "Trauma Mic" featuring Pink Siifu. Produced by DJ Haram, the duo's visceral new track "snowballs," Armand Hammer describes, "except instead of snow it’s a neodymium magnet cascading down a mountain of discarded pig iron." 

Following Haram, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is an entirely different beast, incorporating live instrumentation and featuring an array of producers including JPEGMAFIA, EL-P, Kenny Segal, DJ Haram, Black Noi$e, Preservation, August Fanon, Steel Tipped Dove, Child Actor and Sebb Bash. Holding true to the sonic identity they've successfully cultivated since their 2013 debut, familiar faces like Pink Siifu, Moor Mother, and Curly Castro make contributions, while also bringing new and like-minded peers into the fold, with features from Junglepussy, Moneynicca (of Soul Glo) and Cavalier. Virtuoso jazz musician and celebrated composer Shabaka Hutchings shows up on flute, one of several musicians who sat down with ELUCID and celebrated engineer Willie Green for a jam session in 2022 that helped pour the foundation of this album. 

Of his experience working on the album, ELUCID shares, "This sort of reverse engineering of talented players who met for the first time in the studio jamming to pre-recorded beats before splintering off into new directions. Being in the room quietly watching 4 people fumble around each other's sonic worlds before finally locking into a solid groove was a clear and obvious magical moment for me." 

As solo artists, ELUCID and Billy Woods had already achieved modest success prior to collaborating on their 2013 debut, Race Music. That album was followed by an EP; Furtive Movements in 2014. Both artists continued to collaborate over the following years; making appearances on each other’s work and performing together, but fans would have to wait four years for a new Armand Hammer project. ROME was released in November of 2017, and the duo doubled down with Paraffin in 2018. Like opposite sides of a coin, the two albums are connected, yet radically different in their design. Paraffin was greeted with a wave of critical acclaim that only rose in the wake of 2020’s naturalistic masterpiece Shrines or their transgressive 2021 collaboration with The Alchemist, Haram.

GOYA GUMBANI

Born in Brooklyn NY and living in London Goya Gumbani is a rapper with a unique style, heartfelt lyrics and an eye for detail. 2020 was Goya’s break out year, a string of popular and well reviewed releases with London and NY heads brought him to the attention of Boiler Room, iD magazine and Virgil Abloh’s Louis Vuitton. Since then and with the support of his peers Goya has gone from strength to strength, recording features with Jazz spearhead Joe Armon Jones and dance music hero Joy Orbison. He’s toured the UK, Europe and the US including SXSW recorded a Colors Studio Performance (racking up just under a million views) has a monthly show on NTS Radio and been featured in multiple magazines and photo shoots. With his talents recognised across the board and a label backing his vision with a series of releases over the next three years Goya has placed himself at the forefront of a new transatlantic wave of music. Along with his ever expanding fanbase buoyed by his infectious energy Goya is set to take it all.