“This isn’t an album meant for you to smile to,” writes vocalist Brian Ennals about his latest collaborative project with producer Infinity Knives, “except when I say something funny.” Instead, King Cobra (2022) is an album to immerse yourself into, to experience the vitriol, rage, philosophy, humour, and myth-making at the heart of Ennals’s poetic vocals and Infinity Knives’s urgent and unpredictable instrumentals. Following their monumental 2020 release Rhino XXL and 2020’s Dear, Sudan, Infinity Knives & Brian Ennals have, with King Cobra, solidified their reputation as one of the most exciting, eclectic, and wildly experimental hip-hop formations hailing from Baltimore. Bending hip-hop frameworks to uniquely idiosyncratic styles, King Cobra ranges from spaced-out funk, janky rap anthems, and stark trap manifestos to sprawling, synthesiser rap ballads. Ennals’s personal bars, delivered with an agile flow, complement the dexterous productions of Infinity Knives like no other.