We Buy Diabetic Test Strips
Armand Hammer
2023
New York is filled with signs advertising cash in exchange for diabetic test strips. It’s part of a lucrative, informal economy, where insured patients can legally sell the diagnostics to uninsured buyers who can’t afford retail prices. The whole thing is absurd to the rappers billy woods and ELUCID of Armand Hammer.
The advertisements, and what they signal about wealth disparity in the city, became the inspiration for the duo’s sixth album, We Buy Diabetic Test Strips.
”The new album explores the challenges of living in the gentrified borough of Brooklyn, and how the two fit within it. As fathers in their 40s in a genre that doesn’t celebrate aging, the music also wrestles with what might come next.
“It’s the whole idea of spending all this time walking around, looking at these buildings and being like, ‘Man, what if I could afford to buy this?’” Woods said. “And thinking about my mom getting older, like, ‘What am I going to do?’”
Stand-Out Tracks
The Gods Must Be Crazy
Woke Up And Asked Siri How I’m Gonna Die
I Keep a Mirror in My Pocket
