Trade Voorhees is surrounded by a circle of faces chanting his lyrics. “In Northtown, the dude’s like a god,” local rapper Hassan explains. It’s Friday night at the Hard Hat Lounge, and Voorhees’ fans are here supporting his midnight drop of an untitled LP. “Vegas, what’s up?” he shouts, triggering another callback from the folks at his feet. Then the set ends, his entourage follows him—where he goes, they go.

Voorhees’ new album (available through tradevoorhees.com) features some chilled-out tracks, but the ones that truly stand out are more subversive—like the tribute to Psycho’s Norman Bates or a song about a boy accidentally killing his mother. “They kept me in this box/’cause they think I killed my mom/Stuck inside solitary since I was 7/But was I wrong?/She would beat and mistreat me/I just pushed her off some stairs/I didn’t know it’d end up killing her right there.” Then it’s back to Voorhees’ upbeat self, “I’ma be the coolest mother*cker on Earth,” he raps, like that murder-y stuff never happened.

“I don’t want people to take away that this is some Insane Clown Posse, I want to chop you up into little pieces [thing],” Voorhees says. “I’m not Brotha Lynch. I [just] find horror movies fascinating enough to the point that I want to write about them.” One track even uses the title credits from Creepshow 2, one of his childhood favorites.

But beyond Voorhees’ creep factor stands a smart, tightly produced album full of deep bass, jazzy samples, looping vocals and the hazy vibe that made Kid Cudi a household name. Like some sort of hangover daydream, Voorhees’ LP somehow manages to be boisterous and carefree, disturbing and gritty—all at the same time.