Last week was a landmark one for NW dirtbag rap, as ILLFIGHTYOU dropped their self-released tape (more on that soon), and Nacho Picasso and Avatar Darko released their Marvel Team-Up album Vampsterdam. Aptly named, as Nacho and Av encapsulate a very current, gothy (gold fangs, melancholy, never sleeping), and drugged-the-fuck-out dimension of hardcore rap. As somebody who's followed both rappers from the jump, I was initially concerned that they were going to be better off partying together than actually making music as a unit. Even though I was digging the sounds, taken out of context, those singles seemed to showcase the sense-dulling effects of too much turning-up (even though naming a song "Smells Like Lean Spirit" is a triumph in itself). Was Avatar losing his CD-bred frontline snarl? Was Nacho even fully awake? Listening to Vampsterdam front to back, however, I hung on every song, it all clicked, and I found myself appropriately cozy in this submerged chamber. There is undeniably a darkness within both of these men—and Vampsterdam feels almost therapeutic for them. Not so much in the sense of getting shit off the chest, but in the way most people seem to handle the dark shit on their spirits—they get deeply, unaccountably fucked up and blow off steam. Backed by the mumbling menace from beneath an ocean of Actavis (aka the killer production from Cardo, THC, and Raised by Wolves), the duo occasionally flashes their expensive incisors like a shiver of Xanax-gnashing sharks. Go get it at nachopicassoavatardarko.bandcamp.com.

While we're talking about what locals could rightfully consider supergroups, there's the new album from Th3rdz—the tandem of JFK (one-half of Grayskul, who're prepping their return), Xperience (one-half of Step Cousins alongside his cuddie Macklemore, who brought him out on The Heist tour), and stylish, pimpish vet Candidt. Collectively, they represent (much like Dark Time Sunshine) the diversification of the Oldominion massive—once exclusively the standard-bearers of dark-ass rap in the Northwest. (It's only right that Avatar, who cut his teeth—get it—with OlD, is part of the new face of the grave wave.) Clocking in at 19 tracks, This, That & Th3rdz is everything but dark, spanning styles fit for barbecue and basement both. There's smooth, guitar-laced Vitamin D funk, and electro-slap via Smoke, and vintage 10.4Rog. BeanOne gets extra points for looping up a line from the Jungle Brothers' "My Jimmy Weighs a Ton" on "Fixed & Addicted." Covering all bases, the three bash back at the tired old crab-bucketry and bandleader syndrome, declaring, "We need to all do it." Rapping-wise, these three smooth one another's rougher, darker edges away. Gone are JFK's paranoiac faith crises and XP's gothy town-crier verses—in fact, despite some real moments of go-for-broke rhyming, overall, Th3rdz leans most toward the cognac-lounge instincts of Candidt, the Th3rd with the greatest abundance of pop sensibility (a good thing here). Their CD release party is at Barboza on Saturday, June 22. Do work.