A New Wave Is Upon Us - 7 Tracks to Hear Now
A beautiful thing about music is it sounds so different. Even within a genre like rap, there is a diversity of sound. Embrace it. Here are seven tracks that don't sound like your traditional rap tracks, which is a good thing, right?.
Dorian Colter ft. Trinidad Cardona - Lights Out
As the lines between "EDM" and rap music become more blurred, crossover is going to occur more. Dorian Colter and Trinidad Cardona show us what it can sound like. Dorian has the colorful, comical flow to match the energy of this beat while Trinidad comes in with the powerful chorus ready for a rave. Lines like "have a lake that I'd like to go and find the lord in/word to Arthur I'm a put the sword in" and "all up in the walls I've been Donald Trumping, Donny Trumpet, Donald Duck-in' face" makes the song fun not only in sound but texture.
Tullis - Hailey
This sounds like rap produced by MGMT and La Roux. The constant pulsating hi-hat and keys make this track a head-nodding, danceable number. You could drop this track in the middle of a number of different sounding soundtracks and it'll fit in. Tullis passionately kicks rhymes about Hailey who he's gone through some issues with and yet he still loves her, despite the love not being reciprocated.
Jake Eff ft. Yo$h - Opposite
Over a smooth piano loop, Jake Eff kicks his simple, yet highly effective flow. The evokes feelings of a cloudy jazz bar where a patron stepped up to kick a couple rhymes. Yo$h sing-songey flow is the perfect accompaniment to Jake's raps, which makes like the title provides, opposites.
Sincerely Collins ft. Venture - God
Off of Collins 2016 release, The Legend of the Phoenix, this track features Venture who rocks tracks like a modern Billy Holiday. The track starts out with a loop of Collins humming and descends into a chorus chanting God. The track is like guided meditation before a beat drops three minutes into the song and Collins spits head nodding raps over the aforementioned loop and a simple beat. If music is one way to provide spiritual awakening, Collins is onto something here.
Milky Mel - I Think U Know (Melik.xyz rework)
Remixed or reworked by Melik.xyz provided new life what was already a dope track. But like Lights Out, this track works in the club, at the rave, or at your favorite hip hop show. Check Milky's dope verses, which have substance to them. Here he's honest with himself and wondering about his place in the AZ rap scene. It all comes to a huge crescendo when he raps, "how much can I ruin before graduation/before graduation/b***** we graduating."
Rubix ft. Jaca Zulu - More Than Meets the Eye
We've mentioned this track before but again, Holy rap power ballad, Batman! I want to hear this track live and sing along, loud as hell, with that infectious chorus. Jaca Zulu rides this rock beat perfectly. It is summed up perfectly when he eases through the verse that goes: "Let me be the space that surrounds your burning beams I was in a colder place, but you keep me alive/Stay aware of your supply, everything ain't what it seems/Love's easy to disguise/More than meets the eye."
Headlock - Mad Diamonds
There's precedent for this sound. See Boys, Beastie; Emanon. Here though the duo of Tom Johnson and Illslur revive or push new life into that intense and anxious yet simple beat which squeaks, buzzes, and whistles. Illslur's ADHD raps are dense yet silly. Check it when he says, "Oh you take the bus/oh you take the butt too." The constant smacking of the symbol provides the perfect backdrop until we reach the end of the song and all that built anxiousness in the song gets let out by a woman screaming mad diamonds.
