Hip Hop

AJMW - Loyal

From a garden city in the United Kingdom blossoms an incredible musical talent called AJMW. This is his album, Loyal. I’ll open with a rhetorical question: why did it take me until 2018 to find my favourite album of 2017? I listened to a record number of releases last year since I started tallying them …

Hip Hop

brandon* - Bodak Purple

Bodak Yellow remixes have yet to run out of steam. Here is brandon*’s ethereal effort, Bodak Purple. I’ve been following brandon* for a while on Instagram so I’m privy to how he constructs his beats. Upon hearing Bodak Purple in the making, I was beyond hyped. And now we have the finished product. Bodak Purple …

Jazz

J.Lamotta - The Conscious Tree

Jakarta’s 12th dubplate is Moroccan / Israeli singer and producer J.Lamotta’s The Conscious Tree. This album is the epitome of musical and cultural blending. J.Lamotta is of Moroccan and Israeli descent. She sings and produces her own music. She lives in Berlin and her new album, The Conscious Tree, welds jazz, soul, and hip hop together …

Hip Hop

Keor Meteor - Cedar Grove

French beat maestro Keor Meteor drops Cedar Grove, an “alternative GTA IV soundtrack”. Firstly, we’d like to wish Keor Meteor a very happy birthday today (a day after mine no less). Cedar Grove dropped a few weeks ago and it features the Frenchman’s trademark boom bap interspersed with GTA IV sound clips. This gives the …

Hip Hop

Ohbliv - Foreverness

Ohbliv releases his latest beat tape, Foreverness. We’re big proponents for fragmented soul loops (looking at you, Knxwledge). Ohbliv is a master of the craft and his newest offering is no exception. Foreverness embodies its title in style and ethos with an abundance of soulful chops. Jagged in place and smooth in others, it’s a …

Hip Hop

Tedikuma - SKETCHES

Creative maestro Tedikuma drops new project, Sketches. With a gorgeous cover like this, you’d expect equally decadent beats. And that’s precisely what Tedikuma provides on Sketches. The illustrator/beatmaker put the project together as an accompaniment to BEATS, “a collection of black and white drawings” he did this summer. If his work looks familiar, it might …