We Buy Diabetic Test Strips is the sixth studio album by American hip hop group Armand Hammer. It was released on September 29, 2023, through Fat Possum. The album features guest appearances by JPEGMafia, Moor Mother, El-P, Pierce Jordan of Soul Glo, Pink Siifu, Junglepussy, Curly Castro and Cavalier. It is the first Armand Hammer album to not be released under the Backwoodz Studioz label.
Background and promotion
On July 3, 2023, Billy Woods revealed that their sixth studio album was almost done, saying that they took a "pretty different" approach and that Elucid was still working on the record. Collaborator and producer Kenny Segal thought that the album was "ridiculous" and looking to "knock Maps off the album-of-the-year list". About two weeks later, mysterious postcards and flyers with phone numbers that lead to album and pre-order details were spotted. Fans would also receive postcards delivered to them with a tracklist and phone number. The duo announced the album on August 2. A session with Jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings, producer/keyboardist Child Actor, engineer Willie Green and Elucid helped set up the foundation of the album. The latter described the recording process as an assembly of talented rappers meeting for the first time in the studio to jam "to pre-recorded beats before splintering off into new directions". The opportunity to watch them drift off into their own "sonic worlds" was a clear "magical moment" for him.
Critical reception
We Buy Diabetic Test Strips received a score of 87 out of 100 on review aggregator Metacritic based on ten critics' reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". Mojo stated that "ultimately, it's Woods and Elucid who provide the intense, erudite, funny through-line", while Uncut opined that "the music reflects this stark, witty chronicle of precarious modern living with a queasy tableau of churning beats, one minute harsh and industrial, the next lush and dreamy". Pitchforks Matthew Ismael Ruiz called it a "success—it can feel like being tugged by dozens of different hands yet still being pulled forward" as well as "moody, unsettling, sharply observed album balancing moments of self-reflection with vivid snapshots of societal dysfunction".