Maybe there's something to be said about the ghost in the machine. Kanye West's 2008 bloodletting 808s & Heartbreak has been widely credited with spawning a generation of imitators. And rightly so--Drake, Kid Cudi, and a litany of others have explored their insecurities in the moody negative space, becoming stars in the process. But there's another variation on the style: Autotune as menace.

Lil Durk is one of the trick's chief practitioners--his voice distorted and disembodied, his threats immediate. On "Lil Niggaz," from this summer's Signed To The Streets 2, Durk turns the pitch corrector into something cold and vacuous and altogether terrifying. Finally receiving the video treatment, the track warbles and threatens, all pantomimed guns and very real furs. Joining Durk and Cash Out are the Migos' Offset and Quavo; the former says "My plug is an alien, not from this Earth," the latter opens his verse "None of my niggas is innocent." This is a must-hear.

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