For the past couple of years, eclectic producer and DJ Kenny Beats has made a name for himself for his collaborations with left-of-center rappers like Denzel Curry, Rico Nasty, and Vince Staples. His The Cave YouTube series features those rappers and more joining him in the studio as he makes custom beats for them and then performing freestyles to those beats. It’s pretty cool.
His latest collaboration, though, is a bit of a swerve. On Toro Y Moi’s “Daria,” Kenny and Chaz Bear craft a fuzzy pop rock anthem in the vein of 2006 indie pop classic “Young Folks” by Peter Bjorn & John. An infectious drum loop backs up a propulsive, forceful bassline, over which Toro details a relationship with a girl who might just be a drug dealer.
The song appears on the Japanese version of his 2024 eighth studio album, Hole Erth. Inspired by late ’90s MTV pop-punk and alt-rock and suburban youth culture, the album also featured unexpected, seemingly incongruous appearances from Kenny’s rapper brethren like Don Toliver (“Madonna“), Duckwrth (“Reseda”), Kenny Mason (“Smoke”), and Kevin Abstract (“Heaven“), meaning “Daria” fits right in. Toro is currently on tour promoting the album, with dates in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Raleigh, Nashville, and Atlanta coming this month.
Listen to Toro Y Moi’s new single “Daria” with Kenny Beats above.
