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  Attributing an Artist: NIKI I first discovered NIKI through the 88rising media production company, which I've spoken about before in a previous article . When they released their group collaboration album, with stars like Joji and Rich Brian involved, I heard her fantastic voice and knew straight away she was something special on the rise. NIKI, like others on the 88rising label, is a personality beyond her voice and music, which makes her a great artist to follow all year round, rather than letting yourself be surprised by the occasional album or single. This is so important in music these days, especially considering how long artists can take on projects, as people want to relate and interact with their favourite artists. NIKI offers this to her fans, allowing them to stay in touch with her life, making her feel more like a friend than just someone we like listening to. Recently, NIKI released a new single titled 'move!', with a fantastically simple t...

What is Lyrical Lemonade? Set up by Cole Bennett, a young man hailing from Chicago, Lyrical Lemonade is an online brand originally premiering on YouTube which promotes artists from an underground level with music videos that have stylish and modern production quality. He especially tries to boost the presence of his fellow Chicago dwellers, due to his immense love and sentimentality for his home town- a more than admirable trait. Many artists could have been argued to find their fame through the patronage of Cole and the Lyrical Lemonade brand, including upcoming hip hop artist Ski Mask the Slump God who has collaborated with artists like 'xxxtentacion' and 'The xx' which is a strong sign of influence. Ski Mask got his shot after the music video for the song 'Catch Me Outside' received millions of views. One of his first ever big hits that took off on the YouTube platforms was Famous Dex's 'Hit Em Wit It', which only began t...

IGOR If you haven't yet listened to IGOR- why?  Tyler, the Creator comes back with another outstanding full length project, a while after 'Flower Boy', which in itself was a fantastic album. But none who have heard IGOR would doubt that this is Tyler's best music yet, with exceptional production quality, seamless flows between and within songs, and dreamy lyrics mixed with hard hitting verses. It's been a long time that I've been able to listen to a hip hop/R&B album from start to finish, without getting bored once, or skipping a song, yet even after many listens, I can confidently say I could listen to the whole album on repeat. The album includes many great stand alone tracks, that work well by them self as well as in the context of the album all together. However, none work better than 'Earfquake', possibly the best of 2019 so far for me, across any genre- including Old Town Road (shocking I know, blasphemy even). I'll link the ...

Denzel Curry and ZUU In hot news, Denzel Curry has announced a new album coming to us soon, after the incredibly recent release of "SPEEDBOAT". After his last project, which only came out less than a year ago on July 27th 2018, this a welcome and unexpected surprise to me. I was a massive fan of TA13OO, which showcased his ability to create unique and unorthodox flows over dark beats, creating tracks that would give you major goosebumps. Listening to SPEEDBOAT, this is obviously shown again, with even more improvement on his backing tracks to assist his style.  For those of you who might not know who he is, or perhaps remember the name, then check out the song Ultimate by Denzel, and you'll instantly be reminded of a song that became immeasurably popular on social media and video sharing apps like Vine. At that time, I didn't think much of him, as I thought it was cheesy and kind of irritating, but Denzel has shown massive artistic progression, and ...

Joey Trap: The Spongebob Rapper Forgive the title, he doesn't only rap about Spongebob, although he's clearly influenced. Furthering from my last Soundcloud Shoutout post about bbno$, today I'll be telling you a little about Joey Trap, an artist who ended up being much more versatile than I ever thought someone rapping about getting "Top in Bikini Bottom". I'll link the song regarding this below. You see, before a particular song of his was released, i always assumed that his music was purely funny rap skits, not necessarily substantial, but certainly entertaining. For that reason alone, he deserves your listening time, but more recently he released the song "Lesley", which honestly blew me away. Sure, it's not perfect, but no song is, but it certainly is a more serious example of the talent Joey possesses, which doesn't often seem to appear. It's a beautiful composition regarding the classic gold digger cliche, but i...

Artist Highlights: Still Woozy Still Woozy. This is the alias of twenty-six year old Sven Gamsky, who lives in Oakland California. When you think of garage music, you wouldn't think of wavy indie melodies with summery vibes in overload- but that's exactly what Sven does. Woozy breaks the need for overzealous software and madlib style lyrics just to fill empty space. The songs he makes employs a more personal touch, with a very introspective and eccentric take.  One of my favourite songs from Sven is one of his most recent releases "Lava". Immediately, it feels catchy, as if you've listened to it a hundred times before. If I have it on in the car with my friend, he'll start singing along, even though he only knows it from a weekly car trip with me. As well as the catchy lyrics and melodies, you get a sense of Sven's ability to create dreamy atmospheres where it feels as if you're surrounded by hundreds of sounds that all combine with such harmo...

Artist Highlights: Kevin Abstract A hero of the post-modern R&B wave, and proficient at hip hop, Kevin Abstract is a welcome addition to the 21st century music scene. As part of the hip hop collective BROCKHAMPTON, Kevin has already reached fame beyond his wildest dreams with millions of adoring fans across many ages. Yet his solo career is not as often noticed, which is a crying shame considering the beauty of his work and the powerful messages you'll find in his lyricism.  His album 'American Boyfriend: A Suburban Love Story' was the first I had heard of him, before I was made aware of BROCKHAMPTON, and just listening to the songs one-by-one it was so easy to listen to the melodies and messages in his compositions. For example, my favourite song by Kevin 'Empty' speaks a lot about Kevin's own troubles growing up knowing he was a gay, black man. He demonstrates the issues with his relationships, especially his mum, and how torn you can be betw...

Artist Highlights: Steve Lacy As part of a new installment to the blog, I'll be posting an artist highlight feature whenever there's an artist I want to feature for you guys. For the first installment I want to start with the ever innovative Steve Lacy- an artist who has become a regular in my playlists recently. Steve Lacy's music style isn't necessarily easy to define, not compared to other mainstream artists. He found his fame as part of the Grammy award winning R&B group, The Internet. Steve has also found his way into the song writing and production side of music, even helping to write and produce the song Pride by Kendrick Lamar- one of the biggest names in hip hop. With a backlog like that, it's easy to see why people would at least want to listen to his solo work. Yet even his biggest fans for his song writing work and guitarist days would admit that there expectations were blown away by his solo work. Recently, one of his tracks has become ...

Lake Malawi and 'A Friend Of A Friend' Eurovision can be a lot of fun, sure. It can also make you laugh out loud at the shock value of some of the acts, definitely. But I can never personally say that before Eurovision 2019 I've liked one of the songs so much, I've added it to multiple spotify playlists and listen to it as i drive to work almost every day. That's right. For the first time since possibly ABBA, Eurovision has produced a band that actually has talent!  Lake Malawi from the Czech Republic, wowed audiences with their early competition performance of their song 'A Friend Of A Friend', with fantastic stage design, a lyrical composition that makes sense, and a really, really catchy tune. Three guys wearing yellow, red and black sweaters respectively (although they're not German) performed a song so good, I dared to download it after. Watch the video below if you want to hear it, and let me know what you think in the comments. ...

This is a new feature I will be aiming to produce twice a month that will promote an upcoming soundcloud or underground artist that I feel deserves recognition. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Who is bbno$? Soundcloud, in my opinion, can be a breeding ground for artists with poor production quality, plain or stolen lyrics, and carbon copies. Yet like the old adage goes, there are diamonds in the rough. If you're a fan of comedy, hip hop, and self-deprecating humour, then artists like bbno$ might just impress you. Mixing seriously impressive flows and beats with satirical and loony lyrics, bbno$ is able to create a niche in a market saturated by recycled melodies and serious lyrical compositions. I first discovered bbno$ from the outro of a YouTube's gaming channels outro, and I was honestly shocked to find something that had actual subst...

88rising:  The fastest growing Asian/American Mass Media company Founded originally as "CXSHXNLY" by Sean Miyashiro, 88rising is one of America's- and the world's- fastest growing record label for young Asian/American artists. They also describe themselves as a "hybrid management, record label, video production and marketing company", showing their multifaceted approach to representation of artists and media. 88rising are more important, though, than just a record label, as what they stand for and achieve in a modern, globalized world, where media is scrutinized intensely and bias seems to reign, is a feat like no other. Artists like 'Rich Brian', who is part of the record label, prove this due to their development within music, and how significant of a role Sean Miyashiro's label played. A young aspiring comedian and artist at the time, Brian Soewarno was simply a kid just trying to have fun in his home country of Indonesia...