rescuing musical virtue in distress.
Hip-hop, and all it spawned, has come a long way, and that is as it should be; all scenes and genres need to move with the times. D Skrilla sits at the cutting edge of that perpetual journey, propelled by the traditions of the past and poised, ready to help write the next chapter in... Continue Reading →
Mixing the hip-hop traditions of deft and dexterous lyrical salvos and groove-laden rhythms with the more forward-facing sounds of the contemporary West Coast scene, Crunch comes on like a sonic force of nature. Not to say that the music is wild and unstoppable, it's smarter than that but it is both addictive and infectious in... Continue Reading →
A few things happen when I listen to anything by The Mystery Plan. I brace for the unexpected. I think back to the sort of music being made on indie labels of my formative years, music that set me on a certain musical path. I expect to fall in love with what follows. That is... Continue Reading →
Blending a dark and brooding R&B vibe with a rapped vocal delivery, The Grudge is a reflective journey through past thoughts and relationships. We are all the product of the journey through life which has got us to this point in the present and Ukaga explains that it is past indiscretions and being let down... Continue Reading →
Opting for more beguiling elements than the straight-forward punch, the hypnotic rather than the more obvious sonic tricks, the understated and hazy rather than the clean lines of mainstream pop, Running is a track that seems to invade your sense using a form of musical osmosis rather than the usual sensory methods. It is a... Continue Reading →
It doesn't take long to get to the heart of what this latest ep from Comatose Red Ivy is all about. Smoking. Weed, Pot, Mary-Jane. Being high, stoned, baked, blazed. And why not? Worse things are being championed through mainstream music. Much worse. And although we hear the word freestyle much overused these days, a... Continue Reading →
This latest scorching slice of alt-pop from Wingman works on many levels. Firstly, there is the fact that it is a song written during, and rooted in, the heart of the pandemic and so seeks to offer both a positive vibe and a distraction for everyone who is having a hard time dealing with recent... Continue Reading →
Mixtape. Album. Compilation. Call it what you will but what we can agree on is the fact that Straight From The Soul is the perfect showcase of Speedy2x's sonic style. That style is a blend of old school rap and modern, urban soul, street corner grit and slick uptown club culture but more than that... Continue Reading →
Whilst it is easy to see the influence of the 90's here, a time when east-coast orientated hip-hop gave way to a more universal Gangster Rap, there is a lot more going on than that. I is Important is not only those influences being brought up to date with everything from ambient electronica and trap... Continue Reading →
I'm not really sure where Enter Stellar fits into the musical canon but then that is true of all music which is stepping ahead of the pack and doing something different. The tracks are sometimes built on a trippy trap beats or willfully off-kilter grooves but as always it is the sonics and the melody,... Continue Reading →
What is the best revenge when people express their doubts and disbelief in you? Success, that's what. And that is what is at the heart of JC KU$H's latest single, Okay Now. Running on the skittering percussion of a trap groove and the confident beats of modern rap, lyrically this is a present-day creation myth.... Continue Reading →
The term Jack-of-all-trades is often a misunderstood one, perhaps implying that the person doesn’t have the dedication to excel in any one area. But these are the artists that I find the most interesting, and artist is the perfect term for such people, as they tend to focus on producing art using whatever medium or... Continue Reading →
This latest album from Chicago’s Speedyville Nardy is a riot of spoken word, random vocal sounds and dexterous raps, put to the beguiling and meandering electronica which has become the hallmark of modern rap music. The music definitely takes second place to the vocals that it forms a platform for but that has always been... Continue Reading →
Keep Winning is the sound of a fifty year journey which began on the street corners, in youth centres and parties of South Bronx and which today has infused, influenced and opened doors all over the world, not least of all in Morocco. It’s also a great reminder of the power of music to cross... Continue Reading →
If life is indeed like a box of chocolates, then the world that Fabp operates in is like a hundred boxes of chocolates smashed with a sledge-hammer, mushed back into one squidgy ball of sweetness, fired from a canon, gathered back together and then used to write sonic graffiti on the wall of the nearest... Continue Reading →
It’s when something like this comes my way that I am reminded of the scope and scale of music itself, of its potential to connect people and of its power to instigate creative culture collisions and build sonic scenes which spread beyond country and creed, genre and geographical location.Vasily G. is originally from Istanbul and... Continue Reading →
Rap has always been the place you go when you want to hear about real life. Other music genres might wax lyrical about imaginary realms or wallow in self-aggrandisement about the high life, but rap music has, by and large, just told it like it is, given us a view from the streets, a taste... Continue Reading →
Some people use auto-tune and other sonic tricks to fix failings in their vocal delivery, Speedy2x uses it to great wonderful sonic textures, cascades of voice as an instrument, turning his gentle deliveries into a beguiling and other-worldly sound. This isn’t about fixing things, this is about building whole new sonic worlds to explore.Don’t Know... Continue Reading →
Blending trap beats and trippy sonics, laid-back lyrics and understated soundscapes, Ded Diary Volume 4 is the 5th EP from multi-disciplinarian and rapper Ded Stark. There are many routes to be taken through the urban music landscape, some obvious and aggressive, confrontational and cock-sure, others more understated, more intimate and it is the latter path... Continue Reading →
Music is always at its most poignant when it reflects the surroundings responsible for its creation and 51-50 reflects the complexities and past collisions in Najeé Muhammad’s life perfectly. Pulled one way by the conformity of the church and its teachings, the other by gang culture and violence, he has come through a sort of... Continue Reading →
Although not due out until 17th October, those of us lucky enough to have heard advanced plays can see why there is a buzz of excitement and no small amount of anticipation for Razzie's last e.p. A run of successful singles has already shown his ability to take rap into a bright new future. Not... Continue Reading →
A lot of rap music seems to follow the same sonic lines. Trap beat. Wobbly middle ground electronica. Mumbled and indistinct lyrics to top it off. You get so used to cuing up a track, dropping the digital needle, as it where, and then hearing the same old sounds coming back at you. And that’s... Continue Reading →
We truly live in a multi-media age. Music has often looked to video to enhance, explain and explores larger meaning or perhaps to just act as a shining beacon to draw in the curious casual listener. Today though the network between audio and visual and everything beyond seems to be a wonderfully expanded affair. Sound... Continue Reading →
The on-going pandemic has led to many different reactions from people trapped and traumatised by such unprecedented times. Anger fear, compassion, a renewed sense of unity, even laughter as a survival mechanism and everything in between. And music artists are no different but they do have a more public platform through which to express themselves.... Continue Reading →
Short, sweet and to the point. But that has always been the charm of rap music. It knows what it wants to say and it gets straight on with it, and you can’t accuse Sen Lombardi of outstaying his welcome. Repetitive to the point of hypnotic, minimal to a point that it seems to eventually... Continue Reading →
A lot of modern rap and hip-hop, and the music which has sprung from these forms, seems to be powered by a glitchy, skittering trap percussion. An engine room bookended by depth-charge bass beats and skittering, chiming chirps. Last Night manages to put a new spin on such a rhythmic approach, with the percussive beats... Continue Reading →
City Inside The Desert is, in many ways, a love letter to Phoenix, Arizona. But it is also one based in reality. Rather than mythologise and pander to the cities image, Rocadopolis takes an honest look at his home town's beating heart, pulling no punches whilst clearly proud to be from that place. And it... Continue Reading →
Music and video games have always had a close relationship. Some musicians make a healthy living providing the scores to blockbuster games and most gamers spend their game-time immersed in the sonic textures and musical washes that act as the backdrop to their adventures and exploration, melee and the mayhem. But it is surprising, given... Continue Reading →
This is a lesson about just how music works. First of all you are confronted by a song about female gold diggers which has very few lyrics in the verses and lots of the title/chorus being repeated over and over again.Then you realise that the video looks like it has been made by the same... Continue Reading →
It doesn’t pay to hold your thoughts in, to let them stew and bubble away inside getting ever darker and more confused. Letting your deepest feelings out and clearing the air is always a healthy option and if you are a songwriter, those thoughts invariably find their way into song. Merrick Road, the debut single... Continue Reading →
