“Witness,” meanwhile, is a darker, more-muscular update to “I’m God” the song finds Lil B wandering through a funhouse of warped tones, slipping on his hardened, street persona for the occasion. Here, the far-more-famous A$AP Rocky shares space with Lil B over a lurching instrumental constructed from chopped-up vocal fragments, explosion sound effects, and breathy synths. Like Clams, Lil B has exerted an outsized influence on his peers, and “Be Somebody” feels like an acknowledgement of that fact.
He tightens up his improvisational style to suit the mood, while staying loose enough to sink into the open spaces where Clams’ instrumentals exhale. Lil B rises to the occasion, showing up in a way we don’t often get to hear. Here Lil B gets to test-drive the latest generation of Clams Casino beats: tracks that are more structurally robust if just as foggy on the surface. Clams Casino and Lil B were instrumental in each others’ rise, and these songs serve as a reminder that both artists still do their best work together. Essentially, the first half of the record feels like a Lil B/Clams Casino album: the BasedGod graces four of these six tracks and the album opens with his signature “yessssss” ad lib. The A-side consists of six satisfying rap songs, each of which leverage different facets of Clams’ sound. 32 Levels has very distinct A and B-sides, which split cleanly among the album’s 12 tracks.
