Woozy hip-hip, courtesy of, well, ALL the artists. Given soundgood is less than three minutes long I’m not entirely sure what all these dudes are adding – a sigh here, a cymbal crash there – but it’s really lovely regardless.
Tag: hip hop
Categories
Kota The Friend – Elevator
Of the two rap albums released last week that I paid attention to – the other being 6LACK’s Since I Have A Lover – Kota The Friend’s To See A Sunset is definitely the most fun. I think I’ve used the word ‘breezy’ every time I’ve posted about his music, and I see no reason to break that habit here. Breeeeezy!
https://kotathefriendofficial.bandcamp.com/album/to-see-a-sunset-explicit
Categories
6LACK – Inwood Hill Park
I’ve got places to be today but here’s an absolute banger from 6LACK’S new album Since I Have a Lover to roll you into the weekend.
Categories
Nappy Nina – Weeping Waltz
Recorded in Crown Heights, Brooklyn over a three-year period from 2019 to 2022, Nappy Nina’s new LP Mourning Due is billed as “a record that considers grief a currency and questions who is owed what”. Her voice throughout is hushed and contemplative, backed up by nicely varied production characterised by dreamily looped samples and raw, complex drum patterns. Weeping Waltz featuring a guest spot from Cavalier is a stand out, but the entire album is definitely worth a listen.
Categories
Kota The Friend – WALES
Kota The Friend’s Lyrics to GO started life as a visual project that Kota released as episodes via YouTube, due to Kota’s lack of funds for shooting music videos alongside a desire to increase social media visibility as an independent artist. I’m not sure whether this is still the case – the latest drop Vol.4 doesn’t seem to have any accompanying music videos as yet – but the tracks keep coming; rarely clocking in over two minutes, yet always as fresh and engaging as you’d expect.
Categories
B. Cool-Aid x Ahwlee x Pink Siifu – usedto
Pink Siifu and producer Ahwlee return to release new music as their enigmatic hip-hop/neo-soul duo B. Cool-Aid: the first official release in more than 3 years following their last full-length project Syrup back in 2019. It’s very good!
Categories
Apollo Brown & Philmore Green – Time Goes
Apollo Brown continues to stake a claim as one of the most consistent and prolific beatmakers out there. Time Goes is taken from his forthcoming collaborative album with Chicago MC Philmore Greene, a project which lands in November and promises to explore “the complete idea of introspection”. Yes, please!
Categories
Avantdale Bowling Club – Without You
Blending jazz, hip-hop and some enjoyably throwback production styles (vinyl rewinds ftw!), the second album from Tom Scott’s Avantdale Bowling Club project TREES comes in like a breath of cool breeze blown all the way from New Zealand. Without You is typically laid back, with warm keys and plucked basslines rolling up lyrics like “Feeding you dreams of big, honeybees / Licking fuzz from your buds, but you never heard the buzz”.
https://avantdalebowlingclub.bandcamp.com/album/avantdale-bowling-club
Categories
Pan Amsterdam, Damu The Fudgemunk – EAT
Last seen collaborating with Raw Poetic on Laminated Skies – without doubt one of the finest albums of the year so far – Damu The Fudgemunk has now teamed up with Pan Amsterdam on EAT, which is a similarly brilliant collection of usually chilled and always well-considered hip-hop. The title track mixes the sublime and the absurd incredibly effectively, with triumphant piano chords and choral backing vocals rubbing up against lyrics like “Chicken and rice, going down nice with a side of tomatoes / Cuttin that spice, gonna pay the price on the toilet lil later”. What we gun EAT??
Categories
Kota The Friend – 365 Days of Peace
I think I’ve used the word “breezy” to describe Kota The Friend’s music every time I’ve written about it, and I’ve been sitting here for about 20 minutes trying think think of a more appropriate term. I do not believe one exists. Just listen to those playfully skipping drums! The jauntiness of the keys! The effortless of his delivery! The airhorns!!(!) Everything about it makes me wan bounce gently from side to side while softly grinning. Breezy AF.
The Predatory Wasp 