If you’re unfamiliar, Lunar is an incredibly prolific hip-hop artist fueled by beats and samples derived from a diverse range of sources: anime, Hasbro cartoons, and yacht rock to name a few. Verses spit out lyrical content covering everything from gentrification, life’s brevity and fish sandwiches. There are sixty-eight releases on Bandcamp at the time of this publishing but that’s only going back five years. I’d venture a guess that if you plotted those dates out, the quantity has been releasing dramatically over time.
Quantity does not equal quality but in LUNAR’s case, there’s an undeniable improvement over time across the board; beats, rhymes, content, production, collaborations, artwork, sampling. A great example of this is the June 2023 collaborative EP with Clayhead entitled Eternal Engine. It’s overflowing with clever pop culture references, perfectly timed flourishing samples and some real “Fuck Yea” energy in the back half. For my money, “Italian Supercars / Jefferson St.” is a killer entry point to not just this release but the massive LUNAR catalog as a whole. The energy is captivating, the lyrics are entertaining while being poignant and there’s enough tucked away in there musically that you gotta hear it at least twice.
Every LUNAR release is a quality starting point – see also: Expendables 3: The Dark Lord, Floydberg, Immortal Phoenix, et al. It can be a lot to keep up with but the rewards are well worth it.