They Hate Change Announce Jagjaguwar Debut Finally, New, Share “From the Floor” Video

Tampa Bay production/rap duo They Hate Change have announced their debut album on Jagjaguwar, Finally, New, due out on May 13. On lead single “From the Floor,” Dre and Vonne team up with fellow Floridian DJ GAY-Z, combining U.K. drum and bass breakbeats, Miami bass pulse, Dirty South mixtape raps, and glitchy psych atmospherics as only they can. “Gulf Coast, we don’t give a fuck ‘bout your say-so,” Vonne raps, summing up both the duo’s sonic boldness and pride of place in a single lyric.

“‘From the Floor’ is an ode to Florida car culture, parking lot Electro parties, Miami Bass and Breakbeat Hardcore,” They Hate Change explain in a statement. “We play narrator roles in the video, describing the scene as spectators, admirers and occasional participants, while our unnamed main character plays it cool behind the wheel, unbothered by the party springing up around his classic Chevy. The sound and look for a modern Florida, for 2022 and beyond.”

Dre and Vonne met as teenagers, bonding over the fact they’re both “sonic omnivores, obsessive deep-divers, lovers of rare and radical sounds,” as a press release puts it. That breadth of influence informs a sound that encompasses “not just the East Coast hip-hop that Dre grew up on, or the hyperlocal bass-music variants like jook (the Gulf Coast’s twerkably raunchy answer to house) and crank (think “Miami bass meets NOLA bounce”) that Vonne grew up on, but also drum ‘n’ bass, Chicago footwork, post-punk, prog, grime, krautrock, emo and basically any genre on the map.”

“With this album, it’s really like, okay, you know how you talk about the internet breaking down borders? Here’s what that actually sounds like,” Vonne says of Finally, New. “It’s not just a hip-hop record with a couple more weird sounds. You want homegrown DIY? This is a record that was written, produced and recorded in a 150-square-foot bedroom from the least cool city you could think of.”

“From the Floor” is the album’s closer, and our second preview of They Hate Change’s Jagjaguwar debut, following November 2021’s “1000 Horses.” The duo released “Faux Leather” to mark their signing last August, though that track doesn’t appear on Finally, New.

They Hate Change are currently supporting Shame on their February and March tour of North America, and will do so again in August and September.