On Monday west side party rap duo Sicko Mobb (aka brothers Lil Ceno and Lil Trav) dropped their debut mixtape, Super Saiyan Vol. 1. December is generally considered a dead period for new music—or at least by those releasing year-end lists at the end of November—but Super Saiyan is one of a spate of recent end-of-the-year releases that are out of step with that concept (Beyonce’s surprise “visual album,” anyone?). The artwork and name of Sicko Mobb’s mixtape are obvious hat-tips to Dragon Ball Z, and the hypermelodic synths and watery Auto-Tuned vocals are all made in the name of bop, the fluid and fun dance that took off last year. If the effervescent songs on Super Saiyan aren’t a dead giveaway that the mixtape was made to bop to*, DJ V Dub says it loud and clear on the opening track, “Fiesta”: “We don’t juke no more, we boppin’.”
*Or, really, to dance to in whatever way you see fit—I was hopping in my chair at the office when I first pressed play on Super Saiyan.
