Browsing Tag

Pop Hip Hop

PriZm blurred the boundaries between hip hop and pop in his sophomore single, ‘So What’, featuring Jedimizz.

Posted on 1 May 2021

The boundaries between hip hop and pop are getting thinner, and that is all thanks to genre-melding visionary artists such as Midwest rapper PriZm.

His latest single, So What, featuring Jedimizz, is an evocative firestorm that doesn’t rely on prosaic delivery or melody-stripped harsh instrumentals. Instead, the sheer emotion in PriZm’s almost-dizzying harmonic pop canter will leave you sobered as you listen to the transfixing lovelorn track unfold.

It is undoubtedly one of the catchiest urban perennial pop earworms that you’ll hear this year, making it even more admirable that this track does plenty more than just lyrically scratch at the surface.

So What perfectly captures the devastation that comes from realising that there is no substitute for love, and sometimes, there is no filling the hole that some people leave. Although, hitting play would be a start for the recently romantically aggrieved.

So What is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Pick out the meta poetry in Donte Letang’s hip hop single, ‘My Love’.

Posted on 20 April 2021

For indie RnB fans, Donte Letang’s standout single, ‘My Love’, has all the makings of a playlist staple. Dreamy acoustic guitar, check. Humbly magnetic vocals, check. Smooth instrumentals that immediately feel like home, check.

There are a fair few reminiscences to Timberlake’s Cry Me a River, or more contemporarily, Post Malone’s evocative hip-pop style, but with the precision of the lyrical hooks, Donte Letang is well and truly in a league of his own. It’s the kind of track that you could listen to for the 100th time and still pick out new meta poetry. My Love is gritty urban gravitas at its finest.

You can check out My Love for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Hippie Tribe put urban grit into romantic pop grooves with ‘MARGEILA MISTRESS’

Posted on 3 April 2021

NYC Hip Hop duo Hippie Tribe lay down sticky-sweet soul in their latest release ‘MARGEILA MISTRESS’, which dropped just in time for valentine’s day to prove that urban grit and romantic pop grooves can sit in hand.

As the duo, consisting of Niko Thorpe and Dee Pickney, take care of everything from the lyrics to the mastering, there’s an authenticity to their self-produced sound, and you’d still be hard-pressed to guess a big-name producer wasn’t reeled in to polish and finish it.

Before lockdown, the indie artists graced the stages of Mercury Lounge, The Knitting Factory and Bowery Electric. We can only imagine how high-energy those shows were thanks to Hippie Tribe’s reggae-tinged sun-soaked mellifluous style.

MARGEILA MISTRESS is now available to stream via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

UK rap artist Mulini imparts inspiration through their latest single ‘Keep Moving’ featuring GSQ2

Posted on 10 March 2021
Mulini

In a time when it feels impossible to maintain any amount of motivation, UK hip hop artist and producer, Mulini’s latest single, ‘Keep Moving’ featuring GSQ2 is worth its weight in aural gold.

The sombre tonality of the track ensures that it efficaciously communicates with those who can benefit from the resilience-imparting introspection while keeping just enough energy in the instrumentals to give Keep Moving a galvanising kick.

The harsh reverberant electronic hum beneath the quiescently delivered rap bars add even more weight and brevity to the release which emotionally hits hard enough that you may just feel bruised by the time you reach the outro.

Keep Moving was officially released on February 19th, check it out on YouTube via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Landon Sears gets sexy, sensual, and scented with new single ‘Shea’

Posted on 4 March 2021

If R&B got drunk on Cristal one night and ended up in a lost-weekend New York hotel-room tryst with smooth jazz, then the unexpected offspring a few months later might sound very much like Landon Sears and ‘Shea’; a mix of Blue Note deep groove jazz, smooth R&B, and a little touch of old-skool hip-pop thrown in for good measure. ‘Shea’ has one of the catchiest pop choruses dropped so far this year (so much so that we’ve been singing it for the last couple of hours since first hearing the track), a perfect emotive story in the ‘shea butter lotion/the scent she leaves my home with/whenever I undress her’ lyrical hook.

Sears’ vocal is superb, suiting the track perfectly, sounding chilled, easy, and languorous atop the horns, grooving bass, and Rhodes piano, the track overall sexy, sensual, and fun, clearly having as good a time as, it seems, Sears and his fictional fragranced heroine.

If ever a track had the perfect crossover of serious musical credibility, groove, and sheer radio-friendly commerciality, it’s Landon Sears’ ‘Shea’. The album ’88.1’ from which it comes was released on January 30th(Sears’ birthday); you can hear ‘Shea’, and the rest of ’88.1’, on Soundcloud. Follow Landon Sears on Instagram and Facebook.

Review by Alex Holmes

Mookie helps us ‘Through it All’ with his deeply compassionate pop trap single.

Posted on 14 February 2021
https://soundcloud.com/alexmookie/through-it-all

Up and coming artist, Mookie, started out as an EDM producer, but if his latest pop trap single ‘Through it All’ is anything to go by, it would have been criminal to carry on leaving his melodies unpaired with his unfiltered heartfelt lyrics.

If lyrics as raw as ‘sometimes I get emotional but it’s all I have’ don’t leave a lump in your throat, you can safely assume that your soul checked out a while ago.

Lockdown may have inspired plenty of uninspired songs, but Mookie adds a unique voice to the conversation which allows you to see the beauty in the sadness. Through it All may have come from a place of deep isolation and longing for normality, but it’s impossible not to let yourself be consoled by Mookie’s sweetly affectionate slightly reverb-tinged vocals as they run in synergy by the deftly mastered beats..

Any fans of Lil Peep, Lil Xan or Juice Wrld will want to make room on their playlists for Through it All which is now available to stream via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nisa Pasha proves that passivity is out of trend with ‘Godfather’

Posted on 13 February 2021
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3f5PXJDDc60

Spanish guitars join and stinging trap beats in trailblazing hip hop artist, Nisa Pasha’s, latest single ‘Godfather’ which carries the theatrics of a telenovela while arresting you with the unapologetic attitude.

Lock into the lyrics, and you’ll find empowering mantras which will make you think twice about dealing with romantic frustration passively. We’ve seen enough plastic pop idols for a lifetime, it’s time artists as magnetically aspirational as Nisa Pasha shared the same platform. Just as stereotypes were smashed in the 1972 cult film, they were obliterated within Nisa Pasha’s feisty hit.

You can check out the official video to Godfather which dropped on December 3rd via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

TeawhYB – All Gas No Breaks: Intellectually Inspirational High Vibe Alt Pop

Posted on 27 January 2021
TeawhYB

If you’re always on the lookout for intellectually inspirational artists with the ability to cook-up high-vibe perennial pop earworms, you’ll strike gold when you hit play on the latest single ‘All Gas No Breaks’ from LA artist TeawhYB.

With their indulgent blend of Pop, Old School Hip Hop, R n B and New Wave Trap, All Gas No Breaks grooves with danceable sun-soaked melodicism while TeawhYB lays down their lyrics which act as a call to action for all entrepreneurs and creatives to keep their foot on the pedal.

TeawhYB proves that self-awareness holds just as much importance in music as infectious hooks and vocals which speak directly to the soul by making statements such as “We, as in the world, can’t continue entirely the same way it has before the pandemic. We went through it together, like a relationship gone bad. We’re going to make it out but we’ll have transformed into something we weren’t before.” Putting him on your playlists is practically an act of self-care.

You can check out TeawhYB’s tracks by heading over to their SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kaedo has dropped their dynamically eclectic debut album ‘Overwhelmed’

Posted on 20 December 2020

After a string of successful singles, breaking Pop artist, Kaedo, has finally released their highly-anticipated debut album, ‘Overwhelmed’. Given that we’ve all spent a significant amount of time with that very same suffocatingly dizzy feeling lately, Kaeodo’s unpredictably immersive album is well worth delving into.

Each track exhibits the artist’s dynamic approach to crafting relatable hits, in the space of a single soundscape, you’re bounced from Ambient Acoustic Pop to Moody Electronic Pop with hints of RnB and Hip Hop in between for good measure. Another thing which remains constant through the 12-track release is the directness of the lyricism. With tracks such as ‘I Feel Used’, ‘What Have I Done’, ‘Lonely’ and ‘Terrified’, you’ve practically got an encyclopaedia of emotion laid out in front of you. The album leaves no room to wonder why Kaedo has been able to attract so much hype since making their debut.

You can check out Kaedo’s album Overwhelmed for yourselves via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

RnB Hip Hop artist Jay Towers has transcribed his soul with ‘Love Note’

Posted on 18 December 2020

Jay Towers dropped their most soulful single to date with the release of their fusion Indie, Hip Hop, RnB and Pop, ‘Love Note’. The vocal melody may just be the second most infectious thing to have come into fruition in 2020.

Romanticism without crass perversion in a Hip Hop track may be harder to find than a needle in a haystack, but Jay Towers was able to deliver the dominance of Hip Hop along with affable hints of affable soul in Love Note. Any fans of Post Malone will definitely want to pay attention the sun-kissed, melodically captivating hit which was officially released on November 27th.

You can check out Love Note for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast