Chaz Bundick, the chillwave pioneer and forever-mutating bedroom-pop traveler who calls himself Toro Y Moi, has been making occasional appearances on rap records ever since 2013, when Travis Scott recruited him to guest on the Owl Pharaoh mixtape. But I’m pretty sure we’ve never heard Toro Y Moi rap before today. I am delighted to report that he’s really good at it.
Today, the LA-based rapper MadeInTYO came out with the new single “Money Up.” MadeInTYO last appeared on this site alongside A$AP Ferg and Nicki Minaj on Ferg’s single “Move Ya Hips.” MadeInTYO is mostly known for just that sort of approachable party-rap, but that’s now how “Money Up” sounds. Instead, “Money Up” is a Toro Y Moi production, and it’s a sort of dazed and fractured take on trap music. The drum pattern is one we’re all used to hearing by now, but the winding, head-blown guitar line is not. Toro Y Moi also gets a verse on the track, and he really moonwalks all over this thing. It’s a partly-sung, mostly-rapped verse, and Bundick radiates easy, comfortable swagger. He can do this.
Bundick is only barely in director Cobian’s “Money Up” video. Instead, we watch MadeInTYO and a ladyfriend live out an idyllic suburban life — with the crucial distinction that both of them have gnarly Toxic Avenger facial-disfigurement makeup jobs. Watch it below.
“Money Up” is out now on Private Club Records. Maybe this should be Toro Y Moi’s next direction after Outer Peace.
