Following up on a breakthrough is tricky business. Coming off the success of Frank, his masterfully constructed debut album, Richmond rapper Fly Anakin announced his next project would be the loosely conceptual Skinemaxxx, a collaboration with fellow Mutant Academy member foisey. The duo decided to split the project into two separate EPs, as each purportedly told a different part of the same story. Side A was released in March. Though it provided another example of Anakin’s preternatural ability as a rapper, it suffered from a lack of cohesion, often killing its own momentum with skits and strange sequencing. Side B is a serious course correction, showcasing Anakin and foisey’s undeniable chemistry.
Side A’s highlights, chiefly the sleek stutter-step drill of “Blicky Bop” and brown liquor boogie of “Outsidigan’s Anthem,” found Anakin stretching into new corners. It seemed clear that he wanted to expand out of the thoughtful stoner lane he’d come to occupy but perhaps wasn’t sure exactly how to do so. A lot of Side A, while well-crafted, sank back into the comfort zone of dusty loops and hypnotic vocal rhythms. Occasionally, the music hit on the sleazy promise of its album title and cover, but more often than not, it sounded like a loose collection of very good Mutant Academy songs. On Side B, the duo finds the sound they were searching for: foisey leans completely into the moody quiet storm style he hinted at and Anakin spits some of his most lascivious verses to date.
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From the first moments of opener “Taxicab Confessions,” it’s clear they’re on much sturdier footing. The track positively undulates with the kind of come-hither groove found in Ginuwine’s early work. Anakin responds with absurd pick-up lines like “put that pussy in a bottle/ I’ma drink it while you model;” his come-ons are absurd, but delivered with such confidence it’s hard to imagine that they don’t work.
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Over the rattling g-funk of “Intrepid,” Anakin gets more explicit. “Famously my backstroke solid, I make the bitch shout,” he brags. Later in the song, he doubles down on declaring his sexual prowess: “He don’t flex enough? I’ll do it for you/ Pop you like a boil.” The duo closes Side B with “Lacy Duvalle,” a lustrous sex jam that manages built around a vocal sample seductively cooing “put your tongue in my mouth, make me wet.”
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Unlike Side A, Anakin and foisey don’t lose steam when straying from the album’s simmering horniness. The invented character of GoQuan, the silent star of the skits peppered through the first EP (and mentioned in “Outro,” Side B’s only skit), felt tacked on and underexplored. Here, Anakin mines his own past, weaving bits of his origin story into the EP’s overt raunchiness. There’s a light coming-of-age narrative in tracks like “Animal Planet” and “Blockstory,” which adds some welcome shading, building upon Frank’s autobiographical themes. Where Side A tried to shoehorn itself into a concept that felt ill-fitting, Side B pulls back a bit and ends up reading as much more self-assured.
In a 2022 interview with Bandcamp, Anakin mentioned his preference for “busy beats,” explaining that production with thickly layered samples lets him get lost in his head. Side B throws a wrench into that narrative, as Anakin sounds just as agile — maybe even more than usual — on foisey’s more minimal palette. The EP breezes by at an economical 22 minutes but feels weighty, a testament to how well these two work together. When played continuously, both sides of Skinemaxxx seem disconnected, but when viewed as part of Anakin’s full discography, it’s exciting to see an artist exploring different pockets to see what clicks. Anakin could have easily pressed on, embracing the firehose prolificacy he’s been known for. But taking the time to refocus and learn how to effectively trim the fat pays off in dividends; these are the kind of moves that help an artist build a legacy rather than a discography.
