Boxguts x DJ Akoza Dig Beneath the Spectacle on “Subterranean”
Some systems survive precisely because nobody believes they are part of them. That uncomfortable idea sits at the center of “Subterranean,” the latest chapter Boxguts and DJ Akoza are pulling from their collaborative EP, Metal Head Space. Rather than treating the underground merely as an aesthetic or a place outside the mainstream, Boxguts turns his attention toward what exists underneath human behavior itself—the rivalries, rituals, spectators, and destructive cycles that keep moving because everyone has accepted a role in maintaining them.
“Subterranean” is the second track on the six-song Metal Head Space, a project released May 14. Boxguts is responsible for the rhymes and artwork across the project, while DJ Akoza handles its beats and scratches. Nick Hernandez mixed and mastered the record. That division of labor gives the EP the feel of a deliberately constructed world rather than a loose collection of songs.
The concept behind “Subterranean” is particularly effective because it refuses to place all of the responsibility on the people visibly participating in destructive behavior.
Boxguts and DJ Akoza describe the song as exposing “unseen systems operating beneath the surface”—systems fueled by rivalry, spectacle and self-destruction. The important part comes next: those cycles remain alive because participants and spectators alike continue feeding them.
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That distinction changes the record. The spectator is no longer innocent.
In Hip-Hop, conflict has always attracted attention. Rivalries become conversation. Conversation becomes engagement. Engagement becomes visibility. Visibility becomes currency. Long before social media quantified every reaction with views, reposts, and comments, audiences understood the entertainment value of watching two people collide. Digital culture simply industrialized the impulse.
“Subterranean” asks what happens when observation itself becomes participation. Someone creates the spectacle. Someone amplifies it. Someone chooses a side. Someone shares it. Someone monetizes it. Someone waits for the next escalation. Eventually, determining where the machine ends and the audience begins becomes difficult.
That subject matter fits comfortably inside the larger architecture of Metal Head Space.
The project contains “Jagged Jaws,” “Subterranean,” “Cyborg’s Revenge,” “Clocksmith,” “MechaGutzilla” and “Chattering Phantoms.” Even the titles suggest machinery, mutation, pressure and something lurking outside ordinary human space.
SpitFireHipHop previously covered Boxguts and DJ Akoza’s “Cyborg’s Revenge,” describing the collaboration as dark, experimental underground Hip-Hop built around an intentionally uncompromising aesthetic. “Subterranean” expands that universe, but the threat this time feels less mechanical and more social.
DJ Akoza’s production provides the environment rather than simply functioning as something for an MC to rhyme over. The record has the kind of grimy atmosphere that allows Boxguts to operate without having to soften his approach. The two artists appear interested in creating a self-contained environment, where sound, artwork, titles, and subject matter reinforce one another.
Their history also predates Metal Head Space. “MechaGutzilla,” featuring Boxguts over DJ Akoza production and scratches, previously appeared on Akoza’s 2024 project Don’t Feed The Machine.
That earlier collaboration makes Metal Head Space feel less like an experiment between unfamiliar artists and more like the continued development of a shared language.
There is another detail worth paying attention to. Metal Head Space isn’t being treated exclusively as disposable streaming content.
The project received physical editions, including a limited CD and a run of only 30 cassettes. The cassette comes with a three-panel J-card featuring album artwork and the tracklist inside a vintage-style clear case.
That decision complements Boxguts’ role as both MC and visual artist.
In an era when thousands of records arrive as little more than an audio file attached to a square thumbnail, the physical presentation makes Metal Head Space feel like an object from the world Boxguts and DJ Akoza have created. The chaotic artwork, mechanical imagery and cassette format aren’t separate marketing pieces. They’re extensions of the music.
The cover art reinforces that philosophy. Its violent collision of red, yellow, green, black and distorted forms looks almost as though something living has been caught inside machinery. There is movement without an obvious destination—an appropriate visual metaphor for cycles that continue simply because the mechanism remains active.
The title ultimately provides the key. Subterranean means looking below what everyone else can see.
Boxguts and DJ Akoza aren’t simply examining confrontation. They’re interested in the machinery that makes confrontation sustainable: attention, fascination, ego, participation, and the strange human desire to watch destruction unfold even while condemning it.
That makes “Subterranean” more than another grimy underground cut from Metal Head Space. It becomes a commentary on the ecosystem surrounding conflict.
And perhaps its most uncomfortable suggestion is also its strongest: A destructive system doesn’t always need someone controlling it from the top. Sometimes it only needs enough people willing to keep it moving.
Metal Head Space is available now through Boxguts and DJ Akoza. The six-track project features rhymes and artwork by Boxguts, beats and scratches by DJ Akoza, with mixing and mastering by Nick Hernandez.
