A while ago, at her regular Wednesday DJ residency at Havana, I saw Stas Thee Boss perform some DJ magic: In the middle of playing a song from Beyoncé’s Lemonade, she extracted a phrase and looped it–imagine a carefully curated skipping record–leaving us in the the audience rapt as we repeatedly anticipated an imminent crescendo, extending that one powerful moment into infinity, and transforming a well-loved song into something completely fresh and new. Stas for Hire is a six-track instrumental beat tape from 2014 composed of short song sketches where she uses this technique is used to great effect, especially on a song like “Kilted then Skirted out.” While there are no verses here, the voice is sampled and used in oh so many joyous ways.

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