It’s slow and dreamlike, thick and syrupy, and more than a little disorienting. Clams, aka New Jersey-based beatmaker Mike Volpe, has the kind of aesthetic that can take years to cultivate.
But it took the ethereal, ganja-smoke-laced beats of Clams Casino to get him there. Technically, Lil B coined the term, once vocalizing his own aim to make music that sounded like a castle floating in the clouds.
“ Cloud rap,” as ephemeral a genre as it is, wouldn’t exist without Clams Casino.