There's something about jazz-infused hip-hop that just screams sunshine. Maybe it's the tempo or the warm low-end frequencies, or maybe it's something more primal, something less tangible. Naval-gazing aside, whatever it is, Astral Black's latest signing Drae Da Skimask understands it instinctively. On his latest cut, "Operation Lockdown", he takes only the simplest elements and combines them deftly for an ideal summer jam. The track is taken from his debut EP '95 Mindfulness which, he hastily points out, is named after the year of his birth, not for nostalgic rap reasons. It's scheduled for a July 10 release on limited edition cassette, with hand-printed sleeve by Risotto Studios, and July 17 digitally via Astral Black. You can pre-order the EP here and here.
