A Funky Bad Time

In the process of burning himself out on the possibility of maintaining a career putting out sardonic rap records as a middle-ager — a subject addressed brilliantly (and hilariously) on 2013’s Peter Pan Syndrome — Jay Mumford committed one of the best “fuck it” moves any aging hip-hopper pulled in recent memory: building off a nearly lifelong education and affinity for funky drum breaks to sit behind the kit himself. The Du-Rites put him in tandem with recurring co-member and multi-instrumentalist Pablo Martin, and just four years after their debut hit record shelves, 2020’s knuckledusting, raw-but-tight A Funky Bad Time made it clear they were slinging some of the nastiest stuff around, doing more with just surly-sounding organ riffs, greasily humid guitar snarl, and rolling-thunder percussion than most small combos could hope to even approach.