It became apparent on the aforementioned mixtape that Casino’s beats weren’t really meant to be squashed by rhymes, but stretching themselves past any sort of solitary focal point. The richly textured instrumentals are complex and varied enough that’s it hard for them not to swallow up anything keeping them grounded. Regardless of your opinion of Lil B, it’s hard to deny the sentiment that Casino’s production doesn’t at least dwarf the MC.

Casino’s dystopic static-filled atmosphere seems to crumble around the Based God’s leveled verses, outlining with narrative fragments his general motivations while the thickly languid tenor vocal sample strikes out from the ashes. Take B’s track “Motivation” off of his 2011 Angels Exodus, which appeared as opener on Clam Casino’s own self-released Instrumental Mixtape earlier this year. Many of us first heard Clams Casino peaking out from behind some of hip-hop’s more blog-centric figureheads – Soulja Boy, Main Attrakionz, and, most notably, Bay Area rapper Lil B.

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