Browsing Tag

Cloud Rap

SixPortalz shows us the melodic potential of cloud rap with their latest release, ‘YOUNG LUV’.

Posted on 18 April 2021

‘Heartfealt’ isn’t an adjective easily affixed to cloud rap, but East Stroudsberg-based artist, SIxPortalz left us with few other ways to allude to the evocative and all-baring nature of his latest single, ‘YOUNG LUV’.

With melodic piano keys introducing the track and still running between the 808s through the verses, YOUNG LUV possesses all of the rhythmic pull of a sad pop ballad, but there’s no compromise to the raw and honest nature of the lyrics and the delivery. He’s set the bar for emo rap artists with his soulfully bruising approach.

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

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

As days get dark, 9URIE brings relatable comfort with ‘Barely Alive’.

Posted on 16 April 2021

At 18-years-old, Swedish producer and singer-songwriter 9URIE already has seven years of experience in creating music; his latest single, ‘Barely Alive’, shows just how much he has honed-in on his skills.

Barely Alive perfectly alludes to the mentality of feeling nothing but ennui as dark thoughts spill through your consciousness, but there’s still that spark of life residing within that assures you that there’s something worth fighting for.

It almost feels ironic that I stumbled across 9URIE’s latest release on Chester Bennington’s birthday. A lot may have happened musically since Hybrid Theory, but 9URIE’s grippingly dark hip hop release carries a candle for it and parallels the level of emotion. It’s honest and raw tracks such as this that open up the conversation around mental health and depression. 9URIE is definitely one to watch.

You can check out Barely Alive for yourselves by heading over to Spotify or SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nicky L merges old school with new wave in his sophomore single ‘Curtains Closed’

Posted on 14 April 2021

New York-born hip hop artist Nicky L’s music journey may have started with the influence of Eminem, The Notorious B.I.G., 2Pac and Nas, but for their latest release, Curtains Closed, they drew in the stylings of XXXTENTACION and Juice WRLD to offer a unique combination of old school and new wave.

The track perfectly captures the bitterness of those young love catastrophes where you can tell that it will be a disaster from the start, but something forces you down that path all the same. It follows on from their debut release, ‘Little City Freestyle’, which served as the perfect introduction to Nicky L’s style where lyrically, he lays it all down on the line and through his delivery, you can hear their determination to join the ranks of NYC hip hop greats. Based on Curtains Closed, it seems likely.

Curtains Closed is available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sionis wants to take us ‘Swimming’

Posted on 10 April 2021

Sionis is a 21-year-old musician from Charlotte, North Carolina, with a back history of pop-punk mixed with hip hop and rap. ‘Swimming’ comes by way of artists like Mobb Deep, Havoc, Screwball, or Tyler The Creator. Lyrically, it’s all about a previous girlfriend, and it’s clear that that relationship didn’t always go as well as it might have, with lines like ‘if we fuck then you can scratch me ‘til I bleed/ then I’ll choke you out to gain more energy’ and ‘back and forth, back and forth/ the passive-aggressiveness, I’m sick of it’, but Sionis has some pretty smooth flow mixed with the classic T-Pain autotune vocal production. There’s a solid backing of beats, bass, and piano that bounces the track along in a chilled way, but there’s an underlying anger and aggression here too that fits the vocal message.

You can hear ‘Swimming’ on Soundcloud, and check out Sionis on Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

Apollo4K brings an air of gravitas to the trap genre with their latest release ‘Land of the Realist’

Posted on 25 March 2021

West African, Australia-residing trap artist, Apollo4K’s, latest track ‘Land of the Realist’ hooks you in from the first bass-drenched beat. With the ability to contort electronic effects to alchemic effect, Apollo4K brings a brand-new hype to new wave trap.

The rolling rhythms create the perfect platform for Apollo4K’s bars to find synergy with, and as you can probably guess from the title, his lyricism goes deeper than most. Land of the Realist is an absorbing exhibition of the artist’s gritty gravitas and commercial potential.

Land of the Realist is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tea Sea mixes up a big pot of groove on new single ‘Vitals’

Posted on 23 March 2021

Taking a set of playful, poetic lyrics and mixing them up with a watertight groove and bounce, and a chunk of metaphor-heavy imagery, and deliver it all with a non-stop energy and flow, and you’ve pretty much got the recipe for this serving of tea (sea). ‘Vitals’ is a tale of lost-love set to an R&B-tinged hip hop backbeat, equal parts Kendrick Lamar, XXXTentacion, Childish Gambino, and The Weekend.

There’s elements of old-school heroes in here too – Biggie, Dre, Mos Def, and Eminem all feature in Tea Sea’s quickfire wordplay, while there’s elements of soul and eighties street hip hop in the backing beats.

With an official video/visualiser steeped (geddit?) in eighties video effects and 8-bit arcade game visuals, Tea Sea brings us a nice little slice of retro-modern here in ‘Vitals’.

Check out the video for ‘Vitals’ on YouTube; follow Tea Sea on Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

nimonamo delivered a warning in their latest trap track ‘Don’t Waste Time’

Posted on 12 March 2021
https://soundcloud.com/nimonamo/dont-waste-time

Up and coming hip hop artist, nimonamo made their debut in January 2021, they’ve been prolific with their releases ever since. Don’t Waste Time is the fourth single to drop and it’s the best introduction to nimonamo’s melodic trappy style so far.

Soft layers of electronic effect navigate their way around the solid beats laid down by the 808s, creating an inventively textured platform for the vocals which bring nuances of mumble rap into the soundscape – which is no bad thing – but the atmosphere in Don’t Waste Time indicates that nimonamo is an artist with plenty to say, we’d love to get a more potent shot of their introspection in their future releases.

You can check out Don’t Waste Time for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Alt trap artist, 7:AM wakes us up with their ‘Raw Talent EP

Posted on 11 March 2021
https://soundcloud.com/7aminthemorning/sets/raw-talent-ep

Detroit-hailing artist and producer, 7:AM is riding on the new wave of trap with their debut EP ‘Raw Talent’. The spacey adrenalizing EP kicks off with ‘How It Feels’ which makes no bones about immersing you into a distorted feat of alt-electronica with tribal new age rhythm.

The dizzying swathes of reverb in How it Feels may resonate as excessive to those who haven’t found an affinity for psychedelically mind-altering textures in electronic hip hop, but anyone who appreciates electrifyingly visceral ingenuity will find themselves hooked on 7:AM’s unapologetically unique sound.

The Raw Talent EP is available to purchase via Apple Music.

For more ways to listen, head over to 7:AM’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bottled Minds is set to release their emotive cloud rap earworm ‘PARANOID’

Posted on 9 March 2021
Bottled Minds

San Diego-based artist, Bottled Minds is set to release their most viscerally sweet cloud rap single to date with ‘PARANOID’, the emotive earworm may battle with fraught emotion, but with the artist’s signature sound which pulls in elements of RnB to mellow out the mix, PARANOID resounds with an exemplary optimistic feel.

PARANOID is a perfect testament to the artist’s ability to explore raw and stigmatised emotions and relay them without a hint of self-apathy or romantic cynicism. If the lyrics and harmonically dynamic vocals fail to leave you enraptured, the sugared reverb-laden trappy melodies will be happy to test your soul’s capacity to feel.

Hear Bottled Minds via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

KDX drops the follow up to ‘Red Moonlight’ with new single ‘Q Ceiline’

Posted on 3 March 2021

In a chilled out, genre-mixed confluence of ambient trip-hop, afrobeat, and out and out trappy hip hop comes ‘Q Ceiline, the latest single from Nigerian-born-but-Galway-based rapper KDX.

The first follow-up single to the EP ‘Red Moonlight’, Q Ceiline is a leader for a forthcoming album, ‘Villan Clan’, yet a classy, laid-back slice of ambient trap in its own right. Pulsing electronic bass, a trippy, catchy little sequenced lead line, and overlapping, pulled back vocals make the track groove. There’s a beautiful, mellow lyrical flow from KDX’s relaxed, rolling delivery, making ‘Q Ceiline’ a gentle, soulful and atmospheric track with nudges toward Tupac, XXTENTACION, and Kendrick amongst the little dropped influences. It’s a nice little twist on straight-out trap.

Check out Q Ceiline on Spotify; follow KDX on Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes