Browsing Tag

Alt Hip Hop

Young Swavey lit a fire with his fervent rap track, BAPE

Posted on 22 August 2022

With his seminal single, BAPE, hip hop artist Young Swavey lit a fire with his fervent rap bars that blaze across the trappy, slightly psychedelic indie instrumentals.

The up-and-coming artist professes to make his own way in the music industry, and BAPE affirms it. Any and all reminiscences to hip hop icons and contemporaries are extremely fleeting in the short and immersively sweet track, which is fresh enough to take Young Swavey up from the underground. There is plenty of personality written between the convictive lines that almost flow with freestyle energy. Get in on the hype.

Check out the official music video for BAPE on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

A Milli speaks for us all in his seminal alt-hip hop single, Crazy

Posted on 17 August 2022

After an intro of warmly saturated indie guitars, A Milli’s seminal alt-hip hop single, Crazy, grooves into a cuttingly resonant admission of fear over losing your grip on reality. It is ironic when you think about it, considering that being in touch with reality is the sole reason for the global mental health epidemic.

As Jack Kerouac famously said, “the only ones for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved”; that sentiment definitively stood for me while Crazy was running through.

The Ontario-born artist is one of the few left that recognises the true roots of all genres; preservation of our history. In Crazy, the independent artist and audio engineer held himself accountable by extending positive vibes only after melodically laying it all down on the line.

Hear Crazy for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Orval Hill and Lita Lee became the ultimate dark hip hop power couple in ‘Dark Vibez’.

Posted on 10 August 2022

While everyone else is going high with their vibes, Orval Hill went dark with his rhythmic masterpiece, Dark Vibez, featuring the iconic rapper in her own right, Lita Lee. Together, the duo is as electric as Die Antwoord, but thankfully infinitely less problematic, despite the ‘schizo rap’ style which has come to define Orval Hill’s moody sonic style and playfully twisted lyrics.

With ethereal reverb snaking around the steady rattle of the 808s, there’s a phantasmal avant-garde essence to Dark Vibez, which you may be able to hear if you can tear yourself away with the hypnotic bounce of the rap bars. Honestly, if you can hit still through it, you may as well be in a coma.

The official music video for Dark Vibez premiered on July 30th. Check it out on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

King Cooley gave us the ultimate hip hop earworm to ‘Get Down’ to after going viral with her seminal single.

Posted on 4 August 2022

After her seminal single Climate Change garnered over 280,000 streams and was added to multiple official Spotify playlists, hip hop’s fieriest newcomer, King Cooley, is set to release her latest soulful stormer, Get Down.

The Atlanta, Georgia-based artist seamlessly switches between her simmering hell hath no fury rap bars and her neo-soul-to-the-bone vocal harmonies on top of the beats that prove King Cooley has what takes to bring in the freshest new wave of hip hop.

With experimental electronic signatures in place of the usual archetypal 808 rattle, not a million worlds away from the indietronica beats from Warpaint, it is hard not to admire the lengths King Cooley went to with Get Down. She’s finishing what Eilish started.

Get Down will officially release on August 12th; hear it here.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Los Alva bares his introspective soul in the poetry and vibe-driven alt-hip hop single, SLDN

Posted on 27 July 2022

So far in his career, every release has been an emotionally complex blend of heavy lyrics and upbeat instrumentals to take some of the weight of the introspection away. Los Alva’s latest single, SLDN, which reached the airwaves in June 2022, is another blister of balanced resonance.

With his modernistic RnB vocals riding on the bass of the Afrobeat-inspired hip hop beats, SLDN stirs the soul as much as it speaks to it with the lyricism that does more than border on poetry. It climbs right into bed with it to tear away the boundary between rap and poetry.

While some lyricists let their ego and determination to write hits allow the pen to hit paper, Los Alva is evidently perpetually soulfully inspired.

SLDN is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Felicia became the ultimate nu-metal domme by subjugating Boris Johnson in her latest music video, Revolution Business

Posted on 20 July 2022

Even though Boris Johnson does a pretty good job of humiliating himself (and the rest of us while he’s shambolically at it), it was still beyond cathartic to see Felicia sonically flaying him in her latest seductively rebellious nu metal music video, Revolution Business.

It deserves to go just as viral as the video shot by a bewilderedly unsuspecting passer-by when they stumbled on the scene of Felicia dominating Boris Johnson in the market town of Grantham.

The video, (available to view here) has now garnered over 380,000 streams on Facebook, but what is infinitely less measurable is the true impact of the video, which provided a brief reprieve from the existential weight imposed by the futility of faith in our democracy.

How many iterations of “we need a revolution” have you heard recently? Well, now we have the start of one, and Bradford’s most creative antagonist inarguably became one of the most iconic contemporary mononym-toting artists in the process.

The pop-bitten track that instrumentally highjacks your rhythmic pulses through the juggernaut of a cadence keeps on giving. From her originated demurely rapped mischievousness to the screamo lyrical hook “fuck the music business, this is revolution business”, which made her the ultimate metal domme, it is frenetic socialist perfection. My Ruin will never hit the same again.

Fund the revolution by purchasing the track on Bandcamp or check out the official music video via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

22Canelo ticks all the boxes with his hip-hop-archetype-less charisma in Checkmark

Posted on 8 July 2022
22Canelo

Six years from his first lauded mixtape, the Bay Area-born artist 22Canelo let his charisma lead the way in his latest new wave hip hop single, Checkmark. In the same way that Lizzo allows her disposition to heighten every track she contributes to, 22Canelo is a master of the eccentric melodic hip hop earworm.

Too cool for nerdy hip hop, too sweetly eccentric for gangster hip hop, too twee for trap, 22Canelo made the sub-genres of hip hop look like painful stereotypes with his psyche, which will leave you just as psyched by the time the outro has rolled around. Forget the X-factor, he’s got the XXX-factor.

Checkmark will officially release on 08/07/2022. Check it out on his website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The hypersonic hip hop heavyweight, Chaz Matador, is back on his throne with ‘Bone Cage’

Posted on 5 July 2022

If you could imagine what it would sound like if Gary Numan veered into the arena of hypersonic EDM hip hop, you may get an idea of what is in store when you hit play on Chaz Matador’s latest single, Bone Cage.

The full-frontal production isn’t for the faint-hearted; the Albuquerque-born, Portland-based artist is one of the few bold enough to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable. Forget giving Beastie Boys a run for their money; he challenges them to a sprint across the length of a futuristically warped stratosphere and holds them to ransom.

In his own words, he’s a “botched love spell eternally pregnant with imagination”, and his music channels perpetual dissatisfaction with nothing and everything into a mosaic of mediums typical of the attention-span obliterated millennial. We officially love him.

You can watch the official music video for Bone Cage on YouTube. Although, we’d probably advise against it if you’re epileptic. That probably goes for the soundscape itself.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Crimson REd put us on ‘Red Alert’ in his harbingering hip hop debut 

Posted on 3 July 2022

If it has been a while since you got some truly experimental hip hop in your ears, meet the future of melodic trap in Crimson REd’s debut single Red Alert.

With chiptune synthetics blaring under solid, rhythmic hits of the 808s, you can get an idea of what it would sound like if J. Cole put their bars over DJ Scotch Egg’s scorching 8-bit beats. Reminiscences aside, the Reading PA-born and raised artist came into his own right from the outset.

Everyone has their idea of charisma, but Crimson REd will be in-line with the definition for most hip hop fans that vibe with his kaleidoscopically psychedelic sonic signature. We sincerely hope that there is already a sophomore single locked, loaded and ready to drop.

Red Alert is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jeremiah Kingston has launched his infectiously dynamic hip hop debut EP, You’re Not Gonna Like This

Posted on 29 June 2022

Hip hop debuts keep charging onto the airwaves in 2022. Few appeared with as much style, energy, and sub-genre-melding distinction as Jeremiah Kingston’s debut EP, You’re Not Gonna Like This. From party rock hip hop to jazzy tracks, smoky enough to set off your smoke alarms through the sheer sepia-tinged luxe air; it is almost progressively dizzying.

Using reverse psychology in a debut EP title was a bold move, yet it sets a tone for the daring expression contained within. The Charlotte, NC hip hop newcomer created the EP after taking a look around at his life, hating the view and making a move to change it. No stone was left unturned.

Track 3, YNGLT, starts with the cutting lyric, “If my people found out what was going on in my head, they’d leave me in straits”, before launching into a frenetic admission of inner turmoil; that we can all probably relate to these days.

Jeremiah Kingston reminded me exactly why I fell in love with hip hop in the 90s. The larger-than-life personality, the wild energy, the eccentric instrumentals… Anything goes in Jeremiah Kingston’s debut and everything goes together seamlessly, making it one of the most promising we’ve heard this year. We hope there is plenty more in the pipeline.

You’re Not Gonna Like This is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link. Follow Jeremiah Kingston on Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast