Rebecca Black - “Friday (Remix)” [Feat. Dorian Electra, Big Freedia, and 3oh3!]
10 years ago, Rebecca Black released the most viewed video on Youtube for that year with the song “Friday”. The song was released when she was 13 and just wanted to create a fun song and video with her friends. Instead, it gained traction and was ruthlessly destroyed by just about everyone who saw it. After the track changed her life forever, she’s finally able to laugh at it enough to create a remix with some big names. Even besides names like bounce legend Big Freedia and hyperpop trailblazer Dorian Electra, the song is produced by Dylan Brady who helps bring the hyperpop flavor to this one. Does the song fully come together as a top tier hyperpop track, probably not. Without the context, I’m not sure how popular the track would be. It’s definitely enjoyable, but it almost has to be ironically due to the song itself. Whether the song is good or not seems to be arbitrary, but it’s still highly enjoyable and worth a listen for the pure absurdity.
Listen: Spotify
JID - “Skegee”
JID continues to destroy 2021 with another single that sheds light on the Tuskegee experiment to the newer generation that might not know about it. It’s hard to talk about the horrors of the experiment in just a paragraph, so click the link in here if you don’t know about it and want to know more. JID shows not only that experiment, but the rest of the town and its people in the video. The song itself contains a great beat and insane sample by Christo. JID’s lyricism is both dense and straightforward. The way he writes in both the flows and rhymes are unlike anyone else in hip hop, and this is another fantastic example of that. There’s not even a specific line that I would be able to pick out to show the example because everything is so chained together that there’s almost no start or end to anything he says. He said this was released for Black History Month to hold people over, so it appears this won’t be on his album, and that just keeps the expectations really high.
Listen: Spotify
Noname - “Rainforest”
It’s been 2.5 years since Noname’s last album and even though she’s released a couple singles since then, this is the first single off her upcoming album Factory Baby. She’s since started doing a lot different things since then, so I was slightly worried that her rapping was going to take a step back, but I was gladly proven wrong. Her flow has never changed that much, but the spoken word style is still going strong. The lyrical content is similar to what she’s been talking about, which is a critique of capitalism. This is especially evident with lines like, “How you make excuses for billionaires, you broke on the bus?” and “Dyin’ on stolen land for a dollar like that ain’t f****** up.” The production is full of live instrumentation, a rare happenstance for hip hop songs. It’s always a nice surprise when you can have real instruments with some rapping on top of it. Noname has yet to miss so far in her career, and this single is a good sign for the upcoming project.
Listen: Spotify
Kenny Mason - “Partments”
Kenny Mason’s previous project was one of the best debuts in a long while, and this is his first official single to follow it up. His status has risen quite a bit since then, including loosies with Denzel Curry, JID, and IDK. This single might not live up to the best that Angelic Hoodrat had to offer, but it’s still a really good hip hop single. The beat combines these trap drums with a melancholic guitar line in the background. His lyrics are once again person and reflect on how growing up in a certain area can determine the rest of your life. As usual, his delivery goes from the emotionless rapping to his unique sounding singing through. I believe this is a cut off of the supercut of Angelic Hoodrat, currently called Pup. Hopefully it comes sooner rather than later, but Kenny Mason is still on his way to lots of success.
Listen: Spotify
HAIM - “3 AM” (Feat. Thundercat) & “Gasoline” (Feat. Taylor Swift)
The expanded edition for HAIM’s last album came out a couple weeks ago and features two new remixes, one with Thundercat and one with Taylor Swift. Honestly, these singles made me realize how distinct HAIM’s style is. While both Thundercat and Taylor sound good enough on their songs, I’m not sure either really brings anything better to their respective songs than the originals. It was an interesting decision to get Thundercat for just a vocal feature, especially when he’s much more than that, but he sounds fine enough on the bass-led song. Taylor adds a bit more narratively to her track, as expected, but I didn’t love her vocal performance like most people. Either way, it is cool to see collabs by artists that don’t immediately seem like they would work together.
Listen: Spotify
Chloe x Halle - “Hazy” & “80/20”
Speaking of expanded albums, Chloe x Halle released a chrome edition to their album Ungodly Hour with two new songs, “Hazy” and “80/20”. “80/20” in particular has been a fan favorite, as they’ve previewed this song multiple times before. The song itself does live up to the hype, at least the level of hype I had going into it. Chloe and Halle play off each other really nicely and know when to layer the harmonies. The beat progresses really nicely throughout the track as well. “Hazy” is the darker of the two tunes and has almost like a Disney-horror type of sound to the melody before the explosion of drums at the end of the track. Chloe x Halle are at the top of their game and even though both of them are doing many different things in the industry, hopefully they can continue having music be their main focus.
Listen: Spotify
Paris Texas - “Heavy Metal”
My favorite way to describe this song is if Baby Keem was a part of an industrial rock group. This duo came out of nowhere and as far as I know, don’t have any previous music easily available. The cadence for the rapper fits in with the Baby Keem style of minimalistic rhyming and words in general. The subject matter ranges from seemingly nonsense to introspective, depressive bars within the same verse. The chorus is this heavy dose of extremely fuzzy guitars to the point of almost just noise. The outro of the track then sounds like something that would be an acoustic ballad, which almost seems like a teaser to an entirely different song. With all of this wrapped up into 2 and a half minutes, there’s not much out there that sounds like this, and that excites me for the future of this group.
Listen: Spotify
Shelley FKA DRAM - “Exposure”
Shelley FKA DRAM is back for the first time since his name change. The name change follows his change of sound into R&B instead of accessible hip hop hits. Shelley likely isn’t going to make another song like “Broccoli” ever again, but “Exposure” shows he isn’t talentless outside of his previous bread and butter. The song itself isn’t that special, but his voice has this inviting, warm feeling to it that just makes you want to love the song. The harmonies that come on the back half of the track is what really makes this song entertaining. He easily did this sound better with 2019’s “Lay Down” with H.E.R and Watt, so he can easily have a career in this sound. Even though this single isn’t that great for this long of a wait, hopefully whatever project he’s been perfecting over the past few years finally comes to light.
Listen: Spotify
Alice Longyu Gao - “She Abunai” (Feat. bulow and Mura Masa)
Alice has been someone I’ve been aware of for a while now. She’s been associated with the hyperpop scene for a while, but she puts an even lighter mood and feeling to the genre. The first time I was familiar with her was when she opened for Dorian Electra in Madison last year. I only knew her for her biggest song at the time, “Rich Bitch Juice”, but she’s since released a few singles, including “I <3 Harajuku,” with Fraxiom that samples the same melody as the hamster dance song almost a decade ago. This new single is the first time she’s extensively spoken in Japanese in a song. The production for this one is handled by Mura Masa and he brings along another futuristic banger for Alice to sing over. Bulow shows up on the second verse and although she doesn’t add too much, a full verse in English helps her stand out. This one isn’t quite as instantly catchy as a couple of Alice’s previous songs, but it still leaves some hype for her upcoming project.
Listen: Spotify
Pussy Riot - “Toxic” (Feat. Dorian Electra)
I can’t say I know a lot about Pussy Riot, but they’re a feminist rock group out of Russia that protests the current government there. They tend to make noise whenever a large sporting event is being held in Russia, including the 2014 Sochi Olympics and storming the field during the 2018 World Cup Final. But what drew me to this song is their relationship with Dorian Electra, as they were on their project from last year, and the fact that Dylan Brady was producing this track. It starts out as something that fits in perfectly with Dorian and Dylan’s previous work together, but the chorus explodes into this giant, industrial death metal wall of sound. It’s a jarring combination, especially when the verses are so normal sounding for these artists, but I think it works well as a surprise to the listener, even after multiple listens. “Toxic” is yet another example of how hyperpop is forever changing and pushing boundaries of what can be enjoyed as music.
Listen: Spotify
Comments