Scene and Heard – CCCLVIII : Fashion Man – Milly Tae (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

If hip-hop started on the street corners, the social halls and basement  parties of the South Bronx, it has certainly come a long way both musically and geographically speaking since those formative days. And if those early a cappella battle raps and gang related power plays sit at one end of that timeline, Milly Tae’s Fashion Man sits at the other. Where there was dark and edgy music from the street, now we are offered its slick, effortlessly cool and ultra modern offspring.

It revels not only in upmarket fashion but uptown musical smarts, it runs on a skittering but groovesome beat, trap-rap percussive moves, delicate and beguiling electronica and confident and forward thinking vocal deliveries. This is urban music not just for the here and now but for the future, and the future has never seemed so cool or sartorially elegant.