After a brief stop in MLS, Cousin Feo and Lord Juco have returned to international football for season two of Death At the Derby. “English Emissaries,” the first stop on their tour of the world’s fiercest rivalries, takes us to North London, where Arsenal and Tottenham have been squaring off for over a century.
There’s a lot of ways to express your football fandom. It might be collecting an unnecessary amount of kits, creating burner accounts to harass rival fans on Twitter, or screaming at your TV loud enough for the neighbors to call the cops. (If you’re all three of these things please seek help.)
Cousin Feo and Lord Juco have taken a more productive approach, channeling their love for the beautiful game into art, most evident through the stellar Death at the Derby series. Starting in January 2019, the duo along with cut master DJ Dubplates and a slew of talented producers dropped a new track every month, eventually releasing a compilation vinyl that quickly sold out in early 2020.
After that, however, the series was put on hiatus in order for the word to spread as well as to give time for the MCs to focus on their respective solo and joint projects. Last November, they re-connected to give us an MLS-themed EP featuring production by Big Ghost, along with the promise of season two in 2021.
Men of their words, they marked the return of Death at the Derby over the weekend via “English Emissaries,” focusing on the always turbulent North London derby between Arsenal and Tottenham.
Handing off the production duties to Giallo Point (a fervent Gunner himself), who did the remix scratches on the MLS EP, the track fits right in with the soundscape we’ve come to expect from Death at the Derby — orchestral, ominous, and hard as hell.
Feo reps for Arsenal, shouting out the Invincibles along with Gooner favorites Cesc Fabregas, Santi Carzola, and Samir Nasri, while also spitting, “We keep it gully like Gilberto Silva,” a line we’re sure Cooligans co-host and Arsenal fan Alexis Guerreros would give the stamp of approval to.
On the other hand, Juco is decked out in Tottenham blue, expressing his disdain for those who “play both sides like Adebayor,” while poking fun at Arsenal’s dismal 2020-21 campaign.
All in all, it’s another quality DATD track, and it sets the tone for what’s to come the rest of the year.
But that’s not all Feo and Juco have for us. They’re re-pressing the Death at the Derby season one vinyl with Tuff Kong records, complete with new artwork and vinyl colors. The colored vinyls are limited to 300 copies, while the black vinyl will be kept at an open number for a week — a testament to the success the series has built since its inception. Both vinyl editions will drop this Friday, February 5. In addition, new CDs and artwork will be available on both Cousin Feo’s and Lord Juco’s websites later today.
Keep an eye out for a new Derby track at the end of each month, and for the subsequent solo projects each artist has planned for the rest of the year.
Stream and purchase Death at the Derby’s “English Emissaries” via Bandcamp.
