AG Club - F*ck Your Expectations
The newest hip hop collective on the scene just released their first project after blowing up in two separate parts. The first half of this project is more focused on bangers and light hearted indie pop songs, while the second is more introspective. The project as a whole only runs about 53-minutes, so it’s kind of surprising that they released it in two parts, but I suppose it might be a lot for the new generation to consume at once. There are some bangers all over this project. “NOHO” with ICECOLDBISHOP is easily the best new banger on this project, but the singles like “COLUMBIA” and “TRUTH” still are great in the context of the album. The slower songs on F*ck Your Expectations tend to be a bit more hit or miss. Highlights are still here though, like “Youtube2MP3” and “ALTA BATES”, but they don’t stand out among the other introspective hip hop artists. Overall, I do wish AG Club tried to experiment a bit more with their sound, but I’m still satisfied with what we ended up getting.
Shelley FKA DRAM - Shelley FKA DRAM
Shelley took a five year break after his debut album. The big break has led to an overhaul of the sounds that most people knew him for. When he became popular, it was off of these upbeat, hip hop anthems that became huge. “Broccoli” with Lil Yacthy was one of the biggest songs of summer 2016. “Cha Cha” was already becoming popular, but Drake took the whole feel of that song for the 2015 anthem “Hotline Bling”. Now, Shelley is going by his birth name and is now making pure R&B music. His incredible 2019 single “The Lay Down” with H.E.R. and Watt is still a highlight two years later. Everything about this track is pure perfection; from the vocal chemistry to Watt’s two minute guitar solo at the end. Shelley’s upbeat cover of Daft Punk’s “Something About Us” provides a nice contradiction to all the ballads on this project. “Rich & Famous” ends on another high note with a chorus of vocals and a bassline from Pino Palladino. Even though his song with Erykah Badu isn’t the best on here, it’s still a huge flex to be able to have Erykah Badu on both your studio albums. Shelley’s not doing anything different in R&B, but combining his effortless charm with his unique voice lends to a pretty good, classic R&B album.
Flying Lotus - Yasuke
Yasuke will likely end up being one of the biggest anime to debut this year, even with it’s mixed reviews. Flying Lotus was picked to do the score and they couldn’t have picked a better artist for the job. Flying Lotus has long been wanting to help create his own anime, and you can feel the love and care all throughout this soundtrack. He tapped his musical partner Thundercat to sing on the opening theme “Black Gold”, and they continue to sound perfect together. Also, knowing how much of an anime fan Thundercat is too, I’m sure singing on the opening track to a legit anime is a dream come true. He shows back up on bass for the incredible beat “Crust”. The four song stretch from “Fighting Without Honor” to “Sachi” all run together as one cinematic, incredible song with small transitional moments between tracks. Denzel Curry shows up for a quick verse on “African Samurai” that helps break up the project. Even though most of this project is extremely synth heavy with some Japanese and African percussion, he still brings on some hip hop flavor with a song like “Kurosaka Strikes!” The warped synths pair nicely with the trap 808s he uses on this track. Overall, I think Flying Lotus killed this soundtrack and successfully bounced back from his mediocre 2019 album.
Devonte Hynes - Mainstream (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
This is Dev’s first soundtrack of 2021, and third soundtrack in the last 18 months. Even though I’m missing his Blood Orange music, these soundtracks are still fascinating to listen to. It might just be that Flying Lotus released a great soundtrack the week before, but this one does feel a bit weaker than his previous projects. Just having another soundtrack to compare it to both shows Dev’s uniquenesses and his shortcomings. His sound is easily recognizable among the classical scene, even with the extremely minimal textures. His ability to create soundscapes with almost nothing is insanely impressive. My main problem is that the entire project doesn’t play into each other that well. Instead, they all just sound like he’s scoring a specific scene of the show instead of making an entire album. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it makes Flying Lotus’s soundtrack significantly more appealing to listen to. I can see Dev’s music fitting perfectly with the film, but it doesn’t stand out too much outside of it. Even with all that, it makes for some really peaceful background music while working.
Tony Allen - There is No End
Tony Allen is one of the most acclaimed and influential drummers of the past couple generations. It’s not so much because of his solo material, but because of his work with Fela Kuti. Fela was a musical activist that made some legendary music in the 70s and 80s. He is likely the most popular and influential artist in Afrobeat, and has gotten extremely acclaimed after his passing. Some examples of his legacy range from being nominated to the Rock and Roll hall of fame this year, to Childish Gambino mentioning him in a lyric, “And my shirt is off, ooh I feel like Fela.” Fela’s a big cultural figure in music. Tony Allen is the drummer that provided the rhythm behind all of Fela’s material, which is the most important part in Afrobeat. This project was released a year after Tony’s passing and contains features from a bunch of other artists all over the world. His rhythms of Afrobeat and funk help make this album feel cohesive, even with all the different features on each track. Rappers Sampa The Great, Zelooperz, and Danny Brown all provide great features on their respective tracks. It’s a really fascinating album to go through, especially after never listening to Tony’s solo material before this. I’m glad that this album makes it seem like Tony got the notoriety that he deserved.
Cake Pop - Cake Pop 2
Cake Pop is a collection of St. Louis hyperpop musicians that’s helmed by Dylan Brady of 100 gecs. Other people in the collective include Lewis Grant, Ravenna Golden, Aaron Cartier, and more. You can really hear the Dylan production all over this thing, and it’s one of the best parts on this project. They try out a million different styles on the production over the 20-minute runtime, and most of it ends up working. There are traditional hyperpop bangers, hip hop beats, acoustic guitars, piano ballads, and even some horns on here. The problem I end up running into is that most of these songs feel unfinished. The second song, “Cake Happy”, builds really well, but it only feels halfway to a conclusion when the song ends. “Whistle” is barely over a minute long and seems like a waste of a chorus. There are some really great tracks on here though. The lead single “Black Rum” contains this overbearing synth melody and Ravenna absolutely kills her verse on the track. “Boom” has this effortlessly large, but somehow simple beat and is one of the only tracks on here with vocals from Dylan. “Almost Famous” ends the project on a traditional hyperpop ending track and it actually feels complete. For a project made entirely in four days, Cake Pop came together with one of the better hyperpop releases of 2021.
Mother Nature - SZNZ
Chicago continues to have one of the most vibrant hip hop scenes in the country, and Mother Nature fits into the sound perfectly. They have a combination of hard trap beats, but also some smooth, traditional hip hop beats that show their lyrical abilities more. Each member of the female duo can both flow over any type of beat, and they keep the feeling of project as optimistic instead of the subtle darkness that it usually gives. That optimism probably comes from what they do as jobs, which is helping kids heal through the power of music. They probably see the power of music every day, and that feeling comes through on here. Even without the fact that they’re great people, this project contains better rapping and production than a lot of the mainstream projects this year. Mother Nature is here to be the soundtrack to your summer of healing.
Charlie Houston - I Hate Spring
There are a plethora of up and coming female indie-pop songwriters, and Charlie Houston is yet another example. I’m not sure how Charlie started to stand out to me, I think it was because her single “Calls” was played on Zane Lowe’s show while I was listening. I was shocked to see on her Spotify at the time that this single was the only song she had out, as it felt like a pretty seasoned musician made it. The rest of the project also has a very seasoned feel to it compared to most other artists in this sound. I assume she has more material than this and a label probably made her take it down when she got signed. Either way, the other tracks on the EP stand up to this lead single. “Things” has a nice laid back vibe with some subtle electronic moments during the chorus. The bassline alone makes “19” another fantastic track. This project doesn’t separate her from everyone else, but she’s clearly another competent artist making appealing indie-pop music for this generation.
Czarface & MF DOOM - Say What
Czarface and MF DOOM were originally supposed to release this April 2020, but the pandemic caused them to push it back for a while. Unfortunately, MF DOOM passed away late last year, so this ended up being a posthumous release for him. So even aside from him being one of the greatest rappers of all time, there’s extra motivation to listen to this project, as it could be his last. The comic book theme from the cover art permeates this project heavily, with almost every track containing some sort of comic book sample. It’s also a bit weird to call this a collab project, because MF DOOM doesn’t feel like an equal contributor to this one. Instead, it just feels like a Czarface project with a lot of MF DOOM features. It’s not a bad thing, but MF DOOM still outshines everyone with just his verses. With rhymes like, “They're mostly all on dork mode, molder than pork glow. Foretold, feed 'em a whole fork load,” there’s no way that any member of Czarface can match that. Like the SOPHIE collab project earlier this year, this one just makes you feel a bit sad for someone this amazing in their own art form taken away too early.
ALLBLACK - TY4FWM
This is my first time listening to a project by ALLBLACK, and I definitely get the appeal. The Bay Area’s sound is easily identifiable, and ALLBLACK fits into it perfectly. The production is very trap influenced, but still has the classic west coast flavor. He brought out a lot of other artists from the Bay Area to provide verses on here. E-40, G-Eazy, Mozzy, Vince Staples, Guapdad 4000, Sada Baby, and more have significant contributions to this project. Sada Baby fits in especially well since ALLBLACK’s frantic flow is similar to what he’s doing in Detroit with his music. The subject matter is mainly flexing, but there are some personal moments, like “War Stories” with Mozzy and Peezy. Even if you don’t like this sort of music, it’s a nice listen with him thanking the listener after most of the songs. That even what the album title stands for, Thank You For F****** With Me. The celebratory feeling actually starts to come through when you realize that, and shows that ALLBLACK will likely be played all summer in the Bay Area.
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