50th Newsletter
This is the 50th newsletter I’m sending out! Feels kind of crazy. While my passion for hip hop is as big as when I started out, the time spent on this newsletter might not be at the same level. But… I feel I’ve set it all up now with website, newsletter and blog which makes it easier to keep it rolling.
There’s been so much great hip hop in these past weeks. While we had a period of the mumble rapping in like… 2014-2016, we then had the kids with the heavy bass and almost nothing else in their beats being the hottest type of rap in 2017-2019. I feel we’re moving away from that sub genre and stepping into a new kind with more trap and R&B influence than previous. And it’s great.
There’s also a lot of young rappers that have the combination of being the producer as well as rapper making bigger numbers nowadays. A lot of the young rappers knows how to play the instruments and are part of creating the beat and overall sound, which I really enjoy. I feel that brings an extra layer to the song; where you can feel that it’s a craft.
Let’s get to the music!
Cataracts
Freddie Gibbs and Madlib made the incrediblealbum Piñata
a couple of years ago, and it was fantastic. It feels timeless; in the beats as well as the raps. And they’re back with the follow-up: Bandana. This is be the best album of the year so far, and I have a hard time seeing how anyone else would top this in the next coming 6 months.
Finer Things
The second best album of the year was released just a couple of weeks ago, Die a Legendby Polo G. He’s rather new on the big market but has hit the big numbers with this release. And there’s no surprise: he’s got it all: the rythm, the hard beats, the flow, he can do great hooks as well as combine success-rap with struggle-rap with a perfect balance. I’m so thrilled to have him in the game onwards.
U Say
I’m so happy to see GoldLinkkeep going, and evolving his sound even further. He’s always been on his own road, or rather, he’s been paving a new kind of road with the influence of rap combined with R&B. The features by Tyler the Creator and Jay Prince are absolutely fantastic as well.
BLUE
Zaia is the most unknown rapper in this newsletter. He’s 21 year old rapper from Atlanta. If the city he’s from didn’t decide that he should be a rapper, his talent surely did.
Love Me Not
Skepta put a really high bar with his previous album, Konnichiwa from 2016. I can’t say he delivered on the same note, but he still did deliver some great tracks with his new album, Ignorance Is Bliss. What stands true still though, is that Skepta stays true to his style and art direction, and you have to respect that profoundly.