Browsing Tag

RnB Trap

Ride-or-die romanticism burned through Chiron Loxton’s alt-hip-hop sermon of the soul, Pure

Desire runs deep in the alt-hip-hop hit, Pure, from the rising rap artist Chiron Loxton, created in collaboration with Truent. Around syncopated trap beats, minor-key piano melodies amplify the sincerity in the genre-fluid declaration of unflinching passion. It’s a melting pot of electronica, RnB, and hyper-pop motifs, as the vocals prove to be just as chameleonic through the consistently shifting form of the track, which shows that die-hard romantics are still committed to their ride-or-die ethos.

While the moody RnB pop harmonies carry you through the choruses, the introduction of the grimey rap bars delivers a broadsiding juxtapositional contrast that leaves a lingering imprint. It’s the kind of track that will haunt you until you finally give in and add it to your playlists for repeat hits of the romanticism rendered through pure talent.

Now based in Thailand after a snowboard season in Japan, Chiron Loxton drew from a new emotional register inspired by a powerful connection made in unfamiliar terrain. Fuelled by genre-hopping, festival energy, and the impact of cultural diversity, he channelled that kinetic spark into this release.

Pure is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

FLOUVA Flipped the Script on Hip-Hop Misogyny with Synth-Sweet Empowerment in ‘Femme Fatale’

While the mainstream is still flooded with rappers more at ease weaponising misogyny than acknowledging how women transform scars into armour, FLOUVA gave hip-hop a necessary inversion with Femme Fatale. The single slips between RnB, trap, and pop with a sugary synth sheen, locking into the affirmation that pain repurposed as strength is nothing short of inspirational. Each hook is heavy with vindication, each groove slick enough to carry the weight of empowerment without ever letting the energy drop. It’s less a track you hear and more a track that sees you, wrapping resilience into rhythm and refusing to let the past keep its hold.

The 21-year-old Irish artist, known offstage as Shea Cassidy, crafted, produced, and mixed the single from the confines of his bedroom studio, yet the scale of its sound betrays no limits. After catching traction with his 2024 album Monochromatic and radio play on BBC Radio Ulster, FLOUVA continues to turn frustration into fuel, his songwriting rooted in both admiration and defiance.

With more projects already lining up, FLOUVA is intent on keeping hip-hop honest, vulnerable, and evolution-ready.

Femme Fatale is now available on all major streaming platforms – including Spotify. 


Review by Amelia Vandergast

Setty Waxes Lyrical on Modern Malaise in Lookin for Peace – a Hip-Hop Aesthetic That Blurs All Borders

In Lookin for Peace, Setty locked into the cultural zeitgeist with a wavy aural aesthetic that blurs the borders between pop, trap, RnB and hip-hop until those lines are deliciously indistinguishable. Setty waxes lyrical on the weight of the collective psyche, using flex and tension in his bars to bring grit to the forefront of the track. Underneath it all, Lookin for Peace holds up a mirror to the pressure cooker reality so many of us are living through, asking, quietly but insistently, for respite from the boil.

The beauty of this playlist staple is how the production leaves space for your own strain, your own insomnia, to seep into the soundscape as you bounce to the metric precision in Setty’s charisma-soaked performance. There’s a cheeky, offhand charm to Setty, a vibe that explains why his streaming stats are racking up by the thousands. With an after-hours mindset stitched into every hook, he keeps things simple, catchy, and locked into late-night energy that is impossible to resist.

A product of Las Vegas by way of the internet, Setty (Seth Ortiz) has built his rep through cinematic tracks like “Penthouse” and “Didn’t Mean 2.” The Teeny Boppers EP sees him stepping up his evolution, serving three tracks that cover lazy confidence, fashion flexes, introspection and ambition.

Lookin for Peace is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 


Review by Amelia Vandergast

Penny Taylor’s ‘Cuff’ Unchains the Soul of Modern RnB

‘Cuff’ by Penny Taylor smooths out the edges of contemporary RnB. With a trappy pulse, wavy oscillations of reverb wrapping around the melodies, and Taylor’s constantly in-flux vocal presence, it’s the definition of a melodious feat of sonic mesmerism. Hit play and sink into the single, which sees the singer-songwriter lay it all on the line while teasing salaciously hot imagery into the mix, ensuring it hits on every conceivable level.

Having honed his unique sound for over a decade—starting from humble beginnings with a USB mic hanging from his childhood room’s ceiling fan—Taylor has evolved into an unreckonable force in the music industry. Drawing inspiration from Bryson Tiller, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, and J. Cole, his distinctive hip hop, neo-soul, and RnB fusion makes him peerless, as does his ability to tune into universal emotion and make them hit with personal resonance.

Taylor may not have reinvented the RnB wheel with ‘Cuff’, but his authentic contribution ensures he has earned his place in the innovative vanguard as the genre shifts with the times, keeping the vibes raw, real, and relatable for this generation and beyond.

Cuff is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get high with the Dancehall rhythms in Yugí’s RnB release, CHEMSEX

Stan Smith, known artistically as Yugí, intoxicated through his fluid fusion of RnB, Dancehall, and trap in his latest single CHEMSEX. The Melbourne-based, French-English artist weaved his cross-continental influences into the track that locks you into its groove and gets you in the mood. Yugí’s unique sonic identity in CHEMSEX is imbued with the salacious magnetism you would expect from a track so provocatively named; it’s a red-hot escapade into the sensory depths of Dancehall.

At just 25 years old, Yugí, who began his musical journey in Le Chesnay, France, has evolved from a casual experimentationist into a defining voice within the modern music landscape. CHEMSEX encapsulates Yugí’s daringness to defy and his ability to synthesise a sound unmistakably his own. This track is not merely a nod to influential giants like The Weeknd; it’s a bold statement of individuality and artistic sovereignty.

Yugí’s artistic palette is broad, drawing inspiration from a spectrum of genres and icons—from the emotive power of Billie Eilish to the raw intensity of XXXTentacion. Yet, with CHEMSEX, he firmly establishes himself not just as a follower of trends but as a pioneer of modern soul with infectious rhythms to literally and metaphorically move his audience.

CHEMSEX was officially released on August 23rd and is now available to stream on Spotify and Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Zel? darkened the corridors of trap with his indomitably infectious release, Swag Musik

Knowing exactly how to make his flows infectious, his hooks sharp, and his beats pop, Zel? staked his claim as one of the most seminal up-and-coming artists of his generation with his 2024 LP, Mode de vie.

The standout single, Swag Musik, is an urban autograph of sheer innovation; by darkening the corridors of trap, injecting the indomitable conviction of old-school hip-hop and working in RnB aesthetics around the heavy basslines, the Maryland-hailing recording artist delivered a hit that doesn’t just live up to the hype, it leaves you hyped through exposure to Zel?’s cunningly meticulous alchemic presence on the airwaves.

After studying beats and music and consistently staying on his grind, Zel?’s music became a cultivated and twisted take on the familiar; menacing and jarringly magnetic in equal measure, Swag Musik is everything it says on the tin; the shadowy noir-esque hit is a harbingering sign of even bigger things to come for Zel?

Stream Swag Musik on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get lost in the twilight reverberations of TayFiinesse’s RnB-trap heartbreak anthem, The Party’s Over

TayFiinesse

The sun set on the conventional boundaries of RnB, pop, and trap as TayFiinesse emerged with ‘The Party’s Over’, a track that doesn’t just ride the wave of genre fusion but creates its own tsunami. This 18-year-old prodigy from Memphis, Tennessee, who grew up absorbing the rhythms of Soul Train and the genius of Michael Jackson, now channels his eclectic influences into a sound that’s uniquely his own.

‘The Party’s Over’ is a journey through the labyrinth of heartbreak, where each turn is a new shade of emotional depth. TayFiinesse doesn’t just sing about heartache; he makes you feel the shards of a shattered heart with every beat. The track is a bold foray into the realm of experimental sound, where the artist’s raw, unfiltered emotions are laid bare against a backdrop of innovative beats and rhythms.

The genius of TayFiinesse lies in his ability to blend the familiar with the unexpected. His influences, ranging from The Weeknd to Andre 3000, Dua Lipa to Prince, are woven seamlessly into his music. ‘The Party’s Over’ is a testament to this, with its smooth grooves and sudden, jarring transitions that mimic the unpredictable nature of love and loss.

Perhaps the most striking element of the track is its closing, where TayFiinesse daringly samples a monologue from ‘Fantastic Mr Fox’. This unexpected twist adds layers of complexity to the song, turning it into a crafty, multifaceted soundscape that lingers in the mind.

As TayFiinesse prepares to take on New York and beyond, one thing is clear: the party may be over, but for this trailblazing artist, the celebration of music has only just begun.

The Party’s Over will call time on serotonin on January 15. stream the single on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

All that glitters isn’t gold, but Yoko Gold is luminary in his latest release, Mirage

After reading reality as one big script with social cues, the virally successful melody maker Yoko Gold injected his epiphany into his latest single, Mirage.

The Toronto-hailing artist has already achieved mainstream appeal with his debut single, Hurts Me, created in collaboration with Tory Lanez and Trippie Redd and racked up over 60 million streams. Simultaneously having nothing and everything left to prove with his third release saw him re-enter the music industry all alt-RnB grooves blazing.

Attaching genre labels to the scintillatingly sensory release feels wholly derivative to the artistry exhibited in the luxe production, which rides on new-wave reverb-swathed lines to create a sense of ambience beneath his luminous and evocatively sharp vocal lines that will ensnare you from the first poetic verse.

Mirage dropped on September 29 add it to your Spotify vibe-out playlists and get to grips with the wavy introspection.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

P wE$t pushed away pretence in his latest trap hit, This Side of Me

Since stepping onto the airwaves in 2020, the trap trailblazer, P wE$T, has run a successful campaign with his singles and debut LP, Permanent Timing. His latest single, This Side of Me, is an aphrodisiacal installation of exotic urban rhythmics, which delivers indie RnB guitars and Afrobeat flavours around his wavy with autotune rap bars that run evocatively hard.

Lyrically, This Side of Me strips away all sense of pretence to introduce the authentic P wE$T, free from facades and guises. The melancholic sting of the candour is potent, but with the intricately melodic Spanish classic guitar motifs, the blows are cushioned by the accordance.

This Side of Me dropped on September 7th; stream it on Spotify and join P wE$T’s 11.5k followers on Instagram to stay up to date with his new releases; there’s always something new in the artist’s dynamic pipeline.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Essilfie took gospel out of the church with her lush trap hit, Prayed Up

Since making her debut, the Ghanaian soul and R&B singer-songwriter, Essilfie, has established herself as one of the most dynamic artists in the game. With no genre off the table, anticipating her next move is impossible, but it is always effortless to get in the groove of her latest releases; take her latest trap and hip-hop-infused hit, Prayed Up as the perfect example.

The gritty conviction in her spoken-word rap bars is only matched by the lush sultry appeal of the reverb that spills from the instrumentals in the single that breaks the monocultural could for starters and obliterates genre and geographical boundaries for a triadic triumphant exhibition of authenticity.

As luxe as a Jay Z hip-hop production, as soulful as a Sade single, and as introspective as, well, she set her own bar here, the single that speaks through an alter-ego to traverse themes of resilience and faith is one to meditate on.

Check out Prayed Up on all major streaming platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast