Music Reviews

Queens rapper/producer Lil Tecca is back in a bad way with his upcoming fourth LP Plan A (which drops in full on September 20)—and one of its lead tracks, “Bad Time,” clearly sets the table for what’s to come, especially in its Atmos mix on Apple Music.

The loping bassline hum—reminiscent of the one in 2Pac and Dr. Dre’s perennial 1995 classic “California Love,” albeit in a slightly slower gear—swirls in the back of the mix while the minimal percussive taps take to the center, essentially setting the bed for where Tec’s verbiage can shine unencumbered. This is a key production choice, as rap tracks mixed in Atmos sometimes fall prey to musical-element overload—Bomb Squad-style drops to the nth degree—rather than letting a song ensnare you on its own merits.

As soon as Tec’s flow starts, buckle up, for the verses slide across the soundstage like a Cylon’s scanning red eye before nestling in the center ahead of the choruses. He drips the AutoTune in spurts, noticeable mainly whenever he chooses to extend a vowel for emphasis.

Though I started listening to “Bad Time” by using my AirPod Pros, I found I got more out of the mix when I streamed it via Bluetooth through my Atmos-enabled home theater setup. What stood out to me more in the height channels was the slight contrast between Tec’s bookended ethereal vocals that both open and close the track. At the beginning, he floats in the clouds, and you really have to work to get what he’s saying—but by the end, it’s a little more forceful and you have a better understanding of the gist of the story he’s telling. That’s good songwriting in action.

“Is this a bad time?” Lil Tecca asks at the outset of each chorus. Not at all, Tec—not at all. “Bad Time” is a damn good example of how you can get deeper into the basics of a well-produced and smartly engineered rap track in Atmos.