There was a time when rap music stayed on the digital side of the spectrum and other, perhaps longer-established genres, saw themselves as the bastion of analogue sounds. The smart thing about K-Illa is that he is happy to blend the two sides of the creative coin together to make his signature sound. A sound that says so much about, not only where rap music is today, but where music in general resides.
Short, sweet and to the point, Ride takes the slow beats and ticking percussion of the rap and trap worlds, the lyrics are deft and dexterous but through this, he weaves gentle, finger-picked acoustic guitar and washes of floating flute delicacy.
It’s a smart move, one that reminds us that all music is part of a greater whole, that the tribalism of the past has been swept away, that generic divides are there to be jumped over and sonic barricades are made to be kicked down.
