These posts will be twice a month, so the second half of this month is a little short of projects to talk about, but here are some notable projects that have dropped in the last week.
Kali has been making noise the last few years with her features on projects by Tyler, the Creator, Daniel Caesar, Gorillaz, Snoop Dogg, and more. Her own projects have had production and features from a lot of those same artists, and even more with people like Jorja Smith, Tame Impala, BADBADNOTGOOD, Sounwave, Thundercat, Steve Lacy, and more. After having a quite prolific 2019 without dropping a project, this EP is her first release in 2020. These songs’ origins range from all of the last few years. The first two songs, Honey Baby and Angel, were teased way back in 2013-2014. Kali was playing I Want War live all 2019. Even though these songs have been teased for years, this isn’t supposed to be her next big project. She said she re recorded these songs while in quarantine to give the fans something to listen to, as she doesn’t want to roll out her next full length album. And considering she re recorded and put this project together in a week, it’s a really good project. As good as the older songs are, the title track is the best track here. Entirely self produced, Kali goes on a very honest, stream of consciousness style verse over some minimal production that allows the listener to really pay attention to the story. Overall, this project is nowhere near the best work that she’s done, but it’s good enough to hold us fans over until she feels ready to drop her new album.
This is Terrace’s fourth project this year (already has a collab EP with Ric Wilson dropping May 8th), each coming right at the end of the month, and this might be his best one yet! All the other projects have been more or less solo projects, with him doing about everything himself, but this project is full of features. Even at only five tracks, he manages to sneak in seven different features and still make the project feel somewhat cohesive. Intimidated features Lalah Hathaway and Rapsody, and instantly gets stuck in your head. Terrace breaks out his signature talkbox on the duet with Alex Isley on Shea Butter & Blueberries. Also some great piano playing by none other than Robert Glasper on that track. Dead Man Walking is another highlight, with its jazz fueled instrumental and Terrace playing his saxophone. Nick Grant also drops a great verse in the middle of the song. This is a great little EP and hopefully he continues to give us music of this quality.
What Kinda Music feels like how the album cover looks. The drumming from Yussef is exceptional and would keep a drive moving along, while Tom’s melodies and voice would be the soundtrack of the sun setting. There were some really unexpected moments on here, the main one being a Freddie Gibbs feature. Freddie is a rapper from Gary, Indiana, so hearing him over this neo soul and neo jazz style of production from the UK wasn’t expected, but it turned out beautifully. It is a bit bland overall, as a lot of it feels more like a controlled jam session than composed songs. But while this album isn’t that experimental or different from a lot of other music in this style, it’s still some really good music.
Guapdad has been dropping a single every week for the last month and a half, and this is a collection of those singles. If you’ve listened to Guapdad before, his style doesn’t change that much on these. The only change is that he raps a bit more on these songs. Guapdad self produces a lot of these songs, including the standout, Greedy. The beat is really minimal and is built around a deep string sample. Lyrically, Guapdad still isn’t super impressive lyrically, but his songs are always about a vibe and the catchiness. He’s still got a good flow on almost every song, and the listener ends up getting the chorus melody stuck in their head by the time the song ends. For people that know Guapdad, these are some good quality songs for the most part. But nothing on here is better than his best songs like Costa Rica or Gucci Pajamas.
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