Jason Griff & Alaska - “Pop Songs for the Apocalypse”

Posted by Justin Boland on Apr 14, 2023 | 0 Comments

Jason Griff is a Chicago producer who has been building an impressive catalog and Alaska is a rap legend who keeps getting better with age. “Pop Songs for the Apocalypse” is, impossibly, pretty much exactly what it sounds like: an urgent blast of bonkers ideas, all delivered at unsafe speeds. All of which is to say, pretty fuckin’ great, bud.

“Rap legend” is some wild shit to be throwing around, surely, but I feel justified. Even some of the most unambiguously and objectively established rap legends, after all, are failing to move tickets at small venues in 2023, charging beer money for feature verses, and generally enjoying every bit as much benign neglect as “underground” artists do.

As for Jason Griff, his bio describes him as “above average,” perhaps too cute, but undeniably so. Much like his earlier concept/compilation joint “The Human Zoo,” “Pop Songs for the Apocalypse” is an album that only he could have made: his commitment to carving out a distinct sound and pursuing gloriously idiosyncratic projects is very necessary. His mixing game has been improving tremendously along the way.

He also owes me a beat, but I cannot hold this small trespass against him.

For readers who are stoned out of their skulls, I highly recommend enjoying this project as a fifteen minute long psychedelic music video mashed out of a couple hundred B movies and cultural in-jokes only the most brain damaged of media aficionados will get.