Browsing Tag

Indie Hip Hop

Stockdale exhibits their in-Vogue urban pop style with ‘Countdown’.

Posted on 1 April 2021

Berlin-based artist Stockdale has captured the air of 80s East Coast hip hop while adding a melodic soul-pop twist with the standout track, ‘Countdown’, from their 2021 album, ‘BUDDY’.

Their versatile discography cruises between smooth pop and hip hop anthems; with Countdown, you get the best of both worlds. By starting as a fiery feat of lo-fi jazzy indie hip hop, you’ll get pulled into the progressive mix that exhibits four vocalists and a potent dose of collaborative chemistry. With D’Fish, Nomé, Pilgrim and Luce bringing their authentic personality to the track, you’re almost welcomed into the collective creative experience. The harmonic layering in the dream-pop style production towards the outro seriously puts every 90s boyband to shame.

Countdown is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Slyide wants to help us ‘Make It Through The Night’

Posted on 30 March 2021
Slyide

Deep bass, slow tempo, and old-school TR-808 handclaps are the defining character of Slyide’s new single ‘Make It Through The Night’, all backing up a chilled, laid-back vocal. There’s an element of Faithless to the track, a ‘Maxim-ness’ to that vocal delivery, and a retro, old-school feel to the production that smacks of early trance and drum-and-bass tracks, but Slyide is clearly no ‘stuck in the past’ producer; with agreements signed for use of their instrumental tracks in two VR platforms, a workout video, and as instore music airplay, things are clearly already going places for Slyide.

You can check out the ‘Make It Through The Night’ single on Apple Music now, and follow Slyide on Facebookand Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

 

Lewca’s just ‘Doing His Thing’ with musical poetic vibes

Posted on 30 March 2021

With influences ranging from Tom Waits to Class A drugs, the Clash, expensive rum, Ian Dury, and The Streets, Lewca was born in a squat in Brixton, and by age nineteen had graduated to living in a squat in Paris. The more things change, and all that…

Now living in Normandy, and with three kids, a mortgage, and a pet hedgehog, ‘Doing My Thing’ is taken from Lewca’s new – you guessed it – ‘3 Kids and a Mortgage’ EP, and kicks in with a full-on early-Eminem-style Dr. Dre orchestration reminiscent of ‘The Real Slim Shady’, but when Lewca’s vocal joins us we’re suddenly all Mike Skinner/Sleaford Mods ‘Lahndahn, Innit?’ attitude and Scroobius Pip meter, mixed up with a little bit of ‘Alright, Still’ Lily Allen picture-painting cleverness. Lewca’s got great flow and a wonderful ear for rhyme, there’s a cracker of an ear-worm hooky ‘na na na’ chorus in between the pomp and heavy bass, but really ‘Doing My Thing’ – and the whole of the ‘3 Kids and a Mortgage’ – is a well-written, catchy little pop/hip-hop street-poetry-to-music thing about booze, bonds, Brixton, and, weirdly, bacon & eggs.

You can check out ‘Doing My Thing’ on Spotify and Bandcamp, and follow Lewca on Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

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

Hook-Filled Bars Grind Against Reverb-Softened Beats in Sammi Sosa’s latest single ‘Reckless’

Posted on 3 February 2021
Sammi Sosa

Floridian Hip Hop artist, Sammi Sosa, started to find his feet in the underground in 2020, in 2021. His unique melodic approach to rap is set to take him to new heights. His latest single ‘Reckless’ featuring Forever will have plenty to do with his ascention.

With an ambient electronica prelude, you’ll instantly be drawn into the atmospherically-layered mix which drips with serenity; there’s an arrestive contrast between the sedative reverb-softened beats and Sammi Sosa’s grinding hook-filled bars. Plenty of new artists fall in the trap of assimilating popular Rap artists. Not Sammi Sosa. His fearlessness when it came to using his natural charisma allowed his authentic talent to shine through in Reckless. We’re already stoked to hear what urban earworms are in the pipeline.

Reckless was officially released on January 13th, you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Stay up to date with new releases from Sammi Sosa via Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Throw away your saviour complex under the direction of 3HRE’s resounding RnB Hip Hop single ‘Save Me’

Posted on 11 January 2021

Up and coming US Rap artist 3HRE premiered the music video to their latest single ‘Save Me’ on December 15th, ‘mindful and conscious’ Hip Hop may be in trend right now, but 3HRE raised the bar with his conceptually perception shifting hit which has the capacity to seismically shift your attitude around salvation.

It allows you to see most of the people who claim to be drowning as people who waded into the water themselves. With the female vocals crying out for sanctity from themselves along with 3HRE’s Rap bars offering lyrical gold such as ‘Don’t put your trust in another human being because they will never save you’, describing Save Me as a powerful single seems like a criminal understatement.

The artist’s proclivity to lend inspiration from gritty and convictive artists such as Nas and Rakim along with optimism-inspiring Christian Hip Hop artists allows you to experience the best of both worlds. Additionally, save me is as stunning in sentiment as it is in sound.

You can check out the official video to Save Me by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Absideon revives nu metal with their new wave sound in ‘Ephemeral’

Posted on 1 January 2021
https://absideon.bandcamp.com/track/ephemeral

Kicking off with a delicately picked, reverb-soaked clean guitar part before launching into the full-on aural assault of distorted guitars, heavy drums, and thundering bass alongside twin, intertwined vocals, ‘Ephemeral’ from Texarkana duo Brett and Casey – a.k.a. Absideon – is a riotous storm of melodic metal which screams from the speakers and launches itself, bodily, at your earlobes.

There’s obvious comparisons with Linkin Park, System Of A Down, or Seether, but the melodic rock and clever timing shifts set ‘Ephemeral’ apart from the welter of generic sound-alike Nu-Metal wannabes; there’s some serious musicianship on show here, for sure, but the duo also clearly have talent in abundance around both vocal and production duties. ‘Ephemeral’ is the opening track from Absideon’s new-this-week six track EP ‘Reflections’, and on the basis of this it promises to be an absolute firestorm of a record.

Check out Absideon on Spotify and Facebook now.

Review by Alex Holmes

In the music zone: Newark Hip Hop artist Jimii drops ‘The only thing you gettin from the project for now’

Posted on 28 December 2020
https://soundcloud.com/jmiitherapper/the-only-thing-you-gettin-from?ref=clipboard&p=i&c=1

The mysteriously elusive Newark Hip Hop artist Jimii is back with the breathlessly excellent ‘The only thing you gettin from the project for now‘.

Here is a musician who is chasing that money bag and isn’t up for any pointless waste of time at the moment. He is busy getting his music mastered and is on a mission right now to be great. He can taste it and wants the whole meal.

With a consistent flow that slowly builds up pace and swerves in with a skid that moves the block with a shake that is noticeable, we feel this young emcee’s special sauce on the mic. He is that underground King that hasn’t been crowned yet. His style is that of a man who knows that he need to do and he will move mountains for it to happen.

Jimii teases us on ‘The only thing you gettin from the project for now‘. You feel like his is an emcee that is biding his time, building his loyal team, perfecting his lyric delivery and when the time is right post-covid, he is going to get his chance at a festival and stamp his name over everyone’s faces. When you have that extra hungry and are willing to be patient, you can achieve anything you want.

Stream this Hip Hop banger on Soundcloud and see the IG story for more info.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

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

Razor-sharp wit cuts through OvaDos’ high-vibe Hip Hop hit ‘Don’t Miss’

Posted on 27 December 2020

The multi-talented rapper, writer, producer, YouTuber and engineer OvaDos has graced the airwaves once more with her fiery new drop ‘Don’t Miss’, her mission to change the perception of Millennial Rap artists and bring good vibes to the realm of contemporary Hip Hop is evidently triumphant.

Sure, there may be plenty of piteous and egotistical Millennial Hip Hop floating around on SoundCloud, but OvaDos’ monumental mix is the ultimate game-changer. If you’re looking for a Hip Hop anthem to get hyped by, just hit play on Don’t Miss and experience the playful determination exhibited alongside her razor-sharp wit. OvaDos is discernibly the Missy Elliot of her generation.

If she’s not yet on your radar, you might want to think about making some room. Life is too short not to have luminary artists on your playlists.

You can check out Don’t Miss for yourselves via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast