Browsing Tag

Ambient Hip Hop

Juice Patrol squeezed plenty of extra soul into his latest single, Timeline.

Posted on 2 October 2021

Before the grips of winter sink their teeth, get a taste of the Caribbean sun in the up and coming alt hip hop artist Juice Patrol’s third single, Timeline. The ambient grind and the hazy layers construct a mellifluously soothing platform for Juice Patrol’s soft, gentle and endlessly magnetic vocals to dominate as they work through the spoken word urban poetry.

The Ugandan-based solo artist used his fusionist genre and border-spanning sound to prove that soul can spark from the most emotionally fraught experiences. Timeline was inspired by a revolving door relationship and our tendency to turn a blind eye to red flags when affection and history are involved. Instead of giving it all in black and white, Juice Patrol added to the conversation in warm tones and kaleidoscopic colour.

With the depth and wit in the lyrics, Timeline makes you realise just how little nuance there is when it comes to lyrical introspection on toxic relationships. As for the chillwave vibe, you couldn’t ask for a sweeter vibe-out playlist staple.

Timeline is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tahj McQueen brings the catharsis in his spacey lo-fi hip hop single, Healing.

Posted on 9 September 2021

Healing is the third single released by the breaking artist Tahj McQueen, which extends his legacy of lacing the airwaves with meaningful introspection that explores the darkest parts of our 21st-century psyches.

The trippy lo-fi beats are as spacey as Brian Eno’s cathartic tracks; paired with McQueen’s soft delivery of the hard-hitting lyrics, you’ll want to prime your vibe out playlists for this soulfully provoking track that runs you through a timeline of trauma. The timeline may be personal, but the problems unravelled resonate as universal. It is singles such as healing that remind you that trauma doesn’t separate us. It unifies us.

Healing was released on August 27th; you can check it out for yourselves via apple music.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Pharaoh Santana treats his fans to a brand-new ambient indie trap experience with his EP, ‘PSP’.

Posted on 14 April 2021

LA-based hip hop artist Pharaoh Santana first appeared on our radar with his debut single, POP OUT, which hit the airwaves in 2018. With each new release, he has taught us to expect the unexpected. With his 2021 EP, PSP, he’s retained the soul and the wit found in his former releases and treated his fans to a brand-new sonic ambient indie trap experience.

PSP carries the hallmarks of a lo-fi hip hop record through the organic textures and intimacy offered through the minimal production. Yet, indie hip hop doesn’t come much smoother than the mesmerising tracks that are sure to lull you into a state of reflective serenity.

Track 1, Arvada Freestyle, featuring Cress Rilee, steps away from Western rhythms and serves as an intoxicating introduction to the 4-track release that keeps the grooves mellow and the beats cathartically arresting as Pharaoh Santana lays down the lyrical wisdom that he’s quickly becoming renowned for.

Track 2, Pretty Women, is a subversive ode to femininity and beauty where Pharaoh Santana holds his hands up to his vices, never being crass or misogynistic. Instead, he soulfully points out what a minefield dating can be in a hypersexual society, where sex can be used as a weapon, and people get left with scars.

Track 3, Zendaya, is the perfect summer chill hop track. As the smooth choral notes add to the ambience, Pharaoh Santana disrupts it with his strident lyrics that confront the type of person who always brings the drama instead of anything positive. Some people may pride themselves on the games they play, but Zendaya is enough to put anyone who takes pleasure in manipulation think twice.

Track 4, Tony Sparks, amps up the emotion from the former tracks and is undeniably the best introduction to the ingenuity contained in Santana’s almost haunting style on the EP. As the 90s-style RnB hip hop beats flow and glitch beneath his raw, honest vocals as he speaks of humility, you’ll get a sense that nothing was held back or added for prosaic effect. Instead, you’ll get to see how he can utilise tonal contrast to create a relatable and humanistic sense of conflict.

Pharaoh Santana’s EP, PSP, is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Prince Jonez has asserted his authenticity through his tribally entrancing instrumental mix ‘Planet Balloonz’.

Posted on 25 March 2021

Singer-songwriter and producer, Prince Jonez has released his debut album, Lovechild of XII Eraz, delve in and you’ll see how intense and atmospheric instrumental hip hop can be when left in the hands of an artist committed to ensuring that synapses fire at the request of their experimental trip hop.

Sunny staccato rhythms gently coalesce with tribal drum rolls and glitchy beats that weave a little trip-hop into the mix as it steadily gains momentum and picks up discordant alt-rock nuances along the way.

What Porcupine Tree is to alt-rock, Prince Jonez is to hip hop. They may be fresh from their inception, but the Chicago-based artist already exhibits an enviable ability to construct all-consuming aural experiences.

You can check out Prince Jonez’s instrumental mix for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Henksson has delivered their darkly ambient rap single ‘Drunk Dreaming’

Posted on 8 March 2021

With the ability to conjure intriguing vivid imagery in their titles alone, the lead track ‘Drunk Dreaming’ from their debut album, ‘Eyes Wide in the Nightmare’, Haitian/Belgian rapper Henksson won us over before we heard the ominously ambient approach to hip hop.

With most artists too afraid to use their ‘real’ voice and opting to assimilate icons instead, the airwaves fall short of authentic expression, but Henksson fills the gap perfectly. As the bars run through, you’ll be able to feel every ounce of emotion which inspired them.

Drunk Dreaming may be riddled with gritty despondence, but it won’t fail to leave you transfixed and emotionally invested.

Henksson’s debut album is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Succumb to the serenity in TRL Beats & Instrumentals’ smooth hip hop single ‘Goodbye’

Posted on 6 March 2021

UK-based artist and producer, TRL Beats & Instrumentals, is here to say ‘Goodbye’ with their hypnotically smooth hip hop single pulled from their latest album ‘Life in Colour: The Beattape Vol.2’.

The gentle mellifluous layers, constructed with warm and radiantly light tones, ease you into the soundscape which features ethereal female vocals and boasts a dreamy intimate feel. The vocals drift into the mix in sporadic increments around the steady beats that you’ll want to repeatedly revisit.

You can allow your synapses to succumb to the sweetness in Goodbye by heading over to SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Adrian Jose has delivered his prodigiously cathartic alt-hip hop EP, ‘Astronomical’.

Posted on 17 February 2021

‘Astronomical’ is the debut EP from up and coming Chicago-residing alt artist, Adrian Jose which takes contemporary hip hop to evocative new heights. Any fans of Big Sean, Kendrick Lamar and Lil Baby are going to want to pay attention to the psychedelically spacey release which is waiting to wrap you in colourful catharsis.

The 5-track release is less of an expression of emotion, and more of an invitation to find meaning and relatable resonance within the release. The first track, ‘Astronomical Freestyle’, is the perfect introduction to Adrian Jose’s celestially stinging production style. With digitally layered classical strings cutting across mellow trappy beats and under the smooth wavy rap bars, Astronomical Freestyle sets the perfect tone for the release which picks up momentum with the following tracks.

The distinction within the instrumentals is one thing; the candid ingenuity within the meta lyrics is quite another. With tracks such as ‘Rocket Ship’, you could run through them a hundred times and still be able to pick out new wordplay clever enough to shift your perceptions.

Astronomical officially released on January 22nd, 2021; it is now available to stream via Spotify.

Follow Adrian Jose via Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Melt into Quietboy’s soporifically sweet Dream Hop track ‘7’

Posted on 31 December 2020

Lo-fi, subtle, with a pretty ascending musical background of chimes and effected bass backing Quietboy’s vocal, this is hip hop in the style of Future, Lil Tecca, or maybe most-closely, Bladee – all tripping-together flow and autotune vocal effects over chilled, relaxed background. No Boom-Bap stylings or fast, drill-style breaks here, this is laid-back, cool, and mellow, almost trance-like in its chilled-ness.

From Quietboy’s fresh new album ‘Who?’ – thirteen tracks of soft, velvety mellifluous hip hop – this is fresh and airy rap from South Jersey, with a sweet, rounded backing track under Quietboy’s poetic multi-syllabic rhymes and melodic delivery. It’s cool, it’s chill, and yeah, it Quietboy softly lives up to his moniker with a stream of consciousness freestyle delivery and a properly mature sing-song cadence.

Check out ‘7’, and the rest of ‘Who?’, here.

Review by Alex Holmes

Māori Alt Hip-Hop artist FABLE serves evocative urban alchemy in their latest single ‘298’

Posted on 27 December 2020

After the release of their 2019 debut single, ‘Beware’, Alt Māori Hip-Hop artist, FABLE, has amassed acclaim amongst critics and fans alike, with their uniquely intimate approach to producing contemporary Hip Hop, all pretence is lost, and nothing but delicate affable soul is delivered.

Their latest release ‘298’ perfectly demonstrates that experimentation and authenticity don’t need to detract from commercial potential, with enough talent and vision, obscurity can be avoided, and new avenues for passion-driven expression can be found.

The New Zealand-hailing artist has topped charts and made plenty of waves in their local circuit but it’s only a matter of time before he starts to be internationally recognised as the pioneer of urban evocative alchemy that he discernibly is.

You can check out 298 along with FABLE’s earlier releases by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ki$ama’s Foreign Cars is a gritty, dirty message to a broken heart.

Posted on 28 November 2020

Who doesn’t love a good, gritty ode to dreaming and aspiration and a message to a lost heart? All of us, surely, if only so we can feel better about ourselves for a few minutes? With Ki$ama’s ‘Foreign Cars’, we get the story of deceit and devotion, a modern freestyling hip hop tale of betrayal and requital over a trappy, chiming beats background.

From Ki$ama’s ‘Passages For The Broken’ album, ‘Foreign Cars’ has a dark, dirty vocal, all damage and desire and a yearning to prove oneself after duplicity and abandonment. It’s doomy and menacing in places, a clear shout of self-betterment in the ‘So many times you broke my heart/ One day I’ll be in foreign cars’ lyric which forms the chorus hook. It’s kind of rancorous without crossing the line into hateful, and there’s a clear hopefulness in the appetite for amelioration and progress pasted throughout the lyrics.

You can follow Ki$ama on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes