California Sounds: New music and videos from L.A. band the Internet and Compton rapper Boogie

The Internet, “Come Over” video (Columbia). The new clip for this recently released song finds L.A.’s best R&B band lounging on a couch in a suburban home, lost in their phones and wasting the night away. Quickly though, singer Sydney Bennett, who performs as Syd and got her start as DJ and producer for Odd Future, steals away to seduce a would-be lover, tossing pebbles at a window.

All the while, “Come Over” drives the narrative, a band-centered midtempo ballad starring ascendant singer-guitarist Steve Lacy, producer Matt Martians, bassist Patrick Paige II and drummer Christopher Smith. Each appears throughout the video, playing in various rooms in the home while Syd works sexual magic on her would-be girlfriend.

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The song is from the Internet’s forthcoming album “Hive Mind,” which comes out July 20. As with the Syd-directed video, the album focuses on the power of communal creativity. As Syd wrote in release notes advancing the album: “After making a few songs we realized that we really want to use this album to live by example and promote camaraderie amongst young black people.” She added, “We realized that we’re the only band of our kind. And we want to really solidify ourselves as that, as the best.”

Boogie, “Self Destruction” (Shady/Interscope). Last year the Compton rapper signed to the Shady imprint of Eminem’s label, and he has since issued tracks that confirm the buzz generated from early mixtapes. Boogie is known for his playful cadence and a knack for phrasing: On the lovely “Sunroof,” the rapper heaped high praise on a lover through L.A.-centric compliments: “You like tacos on a drunk night / You a club night without a dumb fight / You like Roscoe’s on the next day / Skipping all the traffic — know the best way.”

Which is why, on first listen, the opening chorus to his wild new track, “Self Destruction,” is so concerning. Sounding like a rough take to be fixed later, Boogie raps the following (minus the cuss): “Something something something / Can’t remember nothing / Still don’t give no ... when / Wildin’ out in public / This my self destruction / Something something something.”

(Warning: the video below features a lot of cussing.)

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Sounds totally lazy, right? Has the promising young artist born Anthony Dixson killed his muse as part of the titular decline? Or worse, has he started writing like the Xanax-popping rap youngsters currently driving the defiantly lazy mumble rap movement?

Nope. The lines are a ruse, a device, an embodiment of the track’s theme of self-destruction: Boogie’s launching an argument against such lyrical ambivalence, which he details later. Denouncing social media facades and the ways in which fakers brag and boast online but have nothing in real life, Boogie weaves between personas, steering toward the meta through rapping about how he’s rapping — “This that part I say I’m living what I rap about / Talking ‘bout your debit ‘til your street cred gets you maxed out.”

The video is a joy. Like the Internet’s “Come Over” clip, it’s set in a suburban home. Boogie’s alone at a piano in a red and white living room. A layer of snow has covered everything and an indoor blizzard’s hitting. His dope-smoking friends come banging at his door, and soon they’re rolling through the neighborhood on bikes. When they get airborne, Boogie and friends act like it’s the most natural something something something in the world.

For tips, records, snapshots and stories on Los Angeles music culture, follow Randall Roberts on Twitter and Instagram: @liledit. Email: randall.roberts@latimes.com.

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