The Heat Index: Defcee • Ragnarok (feat. Kipp Stone)

The Heat Index is These Days’ hip hop column showcasing a new hot record we can’t stop playing.

In this strictly Closed Sessions affair, Defcee taps in producer BoatHouse and Cleveland's own, Kipp Stone, for his arresting debut single under the indie label. “Ragnarok” is a meeting of lyrical craftsmen with a penchant for densely constructed bars who strive for honesty in their rhymes above else. In short, it’s a great song to nerd out to and keep playing on loop.

2021 was a watershed year for Defcee, who released three great projects on Bandcamp, each sounding sharper than the last. A student of the genre and his peers, he has fully embraced sparring with other talented emcees in his songs, not only resulting in head-bobbing records but also a constant sense of improvement and a sign of how confident he is holding his own.

“Ragnarok” follows that tradition and also functions as the perfect alley-oop to Kipp, who delivers a nuanced verse on his harsh world (“The light was low, the kind of hope we find was in the microscope) and his aspirations for his talent behind the mic. The fact that Defcee provides a bridge between their respective verses with a line referencing Shawn Kemp is also a neat little gem in a song full of them.

For All Debts Public and Private is the name of the album this single is attached to. Entirely produced by BoatHouse, I’m excited to hear it all when it drops on April 19th via Closed Sessions.