Browsing Tag

trap

Jozondi waxes lyrical to stylistically ensnaring beats with ‘Broken Halos’

Posted on 9 December 2020

From the new album ‘Boy In The Iceberg’, Jozondi’s new track ‘Broken Halos’ is a chilled, mellow trappy little hip hop number led by a beautiful repeating sampled guitar line and gated handclaps and snare patterns all sitting beneath Jozondi’s laid back vocal.

Ladled with T-Pain-style autotune, Jozondi’s vocal drips with West Coast style and easygoing, unhurried lyrical flow, the cleanly balanced in-and-out style sitting snugly atop the backing track, sing-song and poetic over the rolling bass and guitar.

You can hear Jozondi’s ‘Boy In The Iceberg’ album, and ‘Broken Halos’, on Spotify. Follow Jozondi on Instagram and Twitter.

Review by Alex Holmes

CRACK63X has released their subversively sweet Hip Hop track ‘PASSIONLESS’

Posted on 6 December 2020

If your Hip Hop playlists are crying out for fresh sticky-sweet Hip Hop which comes with a playfully sardonic kick, look no further than artist and producer CRACK63X’s latest release ‘PASSIONLESS’.

With the polyphonically enamouring melodies alongside dreamy ukulele strings and CRACK63X’s inventively witty rap bars which subvert the usual Hip Hop narratives, you can’t help falling into the high-vibe Indie Hip Hop mix which stands as a testament to the artist’s authenticity and ability to create an accessible yet distinctively distinguished track.  There’s a fair amount of grit in the lyrics, but the beats cushion the sniping candid lyrical blows which will definitely make their mark on the airwaves.

You can check out PASSIONLESS for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

4N Really Feels Like The Man Right Now

Posted on 28 November 2020

The mathematician Andy Hildebrand might have made his name designing an algorithm to help Exxon find oil drilling sites, but his greatest gift to the twenty-first century has to be Antares and the delivery of Auto Tune. Sure, it might have originally been designed as an aid to correcting ‘bad pitch’ and make vocals more expressive, but – like most music and production technology – artists soon realised the potential for its use as an artistic effect in its own right; through Lil Wayne and Kanye West to the master exponent extraordinaire – the ‘T-Pain effect’ – Auto Tune is to hip hop what the overdriven Marshall is to rock n’ roll.

Here, on ‘I Feel Like The Man’, Ligor Stepanov – a.k.a. 4N – takes that sound – added to a dash of beautifully applied slapback vocal echo – to a slamming, trappy hip hop statement of intent. Thunderous gated bass, cracky, snappy hi hats, snare rimshots, and handclaps sit in a deep, driving backing track behind Ligor’s freestyled rhymes, alternately poetic and melodic and rapidfire and fractious.

“The whole world’s gonna hear my sound” snaps 4N on ‘I Feel Like The Man’; on the basis of this, he’s probably absolutely right.

Check out ‘I Feel Like The Man’ on Spotify; follow 4N on Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

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

US Rap artist Threeseven delivers inspiring resilience with ‘Due Time’

Posted on 27 November 2020
https://soundcloud.com/threesevenmusic/due-time

With dark and bouncy light textures all interweaving in the colossal new drop ‘Due Time’ from Rap legend Threeseven, you’ll be immersed from the first verse.

From there on out, you’ll be locked into the masterful grind which follows a mesmeric pace, making it impossible not to get locked into the introspective-deep lyrics. If you want to hear what raw convictive resilience sounds like, hit play and find out.

Without any hint of self-aggrandized ego, Threeseven serves pure determination through the lyrics in Due Time. It really is only a matter of time before big things start to happen for them and their evocatively compelling sound.

You can check out Due Time for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

B.A. Talks – Ysl: A Grimey Take on the High-Life

Posted on 26 November 2020

‘Ysl’ is the second release to drop from trailblazing Rap artist B.A. Talks, with elements of Grime in the EDM Hip Hop production, the beats are just as domineering as B.A. Talks’ feverishly multilingual vocals.

Not only is the monocultural mould shattered with Ysl, but the artist also melds a myriad of stylic elements from across the urban aural spectrum to ensure that nothing about it feels assimilative. From Drill to Grime to Trap, it’s all there in a stylistic rhythmic storm. Additionally, you’d be hard-pressed to find an artist projecting just as much passion into their music. He’s definitely one to watch.

Ysl is available to stream via all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mikey entwines Trap with Blues in their standout single ‘Sacrifices’

Posted on 18 November 2020

Indie Hip Hop artist Mikey dropped their soul-searching single “Sacrifices” earlier this year. With plenty of humbling and inspiring Hip Hop in the pipeline, there has never been a better time to jump on their sound.

With the repetition of the question “why me?” Mikey hammers home the injustice in the disparity of fairness. But within the verses of the cutting Indie Hip Hop single you’ll find positivity which allows the listener to realise that despite how unfair the hand you’ve been dealt or what struggles are put in front of you, you have the power to overcome them.

With old school bluesy tantalising guitar tones finding synergy with the concise Trap beats, the instrumentals offer plenty of depth, but that aural alchemy is nothing in comparison to the powerful lyricism which is forceful enough to seismically shift your mindset.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Manchester rapper Ice D spits real street stories on ‘Felony’

Posted on 15 November 2020

Manchester rapper Ice D spits real street stories on ‘Felony‘. This is a raw track that has a freestyle type vibe to it and this hits home real hard.

With an original style and plenty and trap-filled busty beats that bounce around like the real word on the streets. Life comes real fast and you need to know the time to survive. This young rapper has a rap delivery that seems to improve as the track going on, a true sign of things that are to come.

Life can get real so quickly and with stories of what goes down in the dark alleys, portrays a musician who knows who he is and this isn’t some lame fake track unlike a lot of the new Hip Hop out there. Expect big things if he can maintain focus and not get wrapped up and gassed with all the easy temptations of the music game that can be so harsh for the naive. Ice D is only getting started on ‘Felony‘.

Click here for the Spotify link.

Head to the Insta for more info.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

evan. – ‘Do It All Again’ (Feat. Xodrew)

Posted on 13 November 2020
https://theevanliu.bandcamp.com/releases

What do you do when you’re 19, going through a breakup, and quarantined at your grandparent’s house with no microphone? Well, you call up your friend and get him to ‘Voice Memo’ you vocals to your new track, of course. Never let circumstances get in the way of creativity.

And with that, evan. wrote and produced ‘Do It All Again’, his debut single, with vocals added by Xodrew – a plaintive, trappy hip hop epic, all deep beats and synth tags, Xodrew’s rapped delivery pushed high, front and centre. Sitting at a slightly-hotter-than-dubstep 150 BPM, ‘Do It All Again’ falls just in the perfect groove between dubstep and drum & bass, but with a melancholic piano hook and a deep, reverby feel that perfectly matches the lyrical subject matter. ‘Do It All Again’ is a mature, intelligent debut from a songwriter who’s clearly got significant potential.

Hear ‘Do It All Again’ on Bandcamp, and follow Evan on Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

Get lost in the fierce flow of 2ODIAC’s Hip Hop drop ‘TUT’

Posted on 12 November 2020

Up and coming Hip Hop artist 2ODIAC dropped one of the hottest tracks of 2020 with TUT, if you missed it, it is our pleasure to introduce you to the fierce instrumental flow and Rap verses which may as well have been spat by a viper.

TUT runs through as a visceral offering of Old School Hip Hop and New Wave Trap, with plenty of theatrical touches to the mix, 2ODIAC brings the vitality which the airwaves have been crying out for.

If the future of Hip Hop was placed in his hands, it would be more than safe. His tracks evoke emotion and arrest rhythmic pulses simultaneously. What more could you possibly ask for?

You can check out the official video to TUT for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast