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Image via Daze Karter
5 On It is a feature that looks at five of the best under-the-radar rap findings from the past week, highlighting new or recently discovered artists, or interesting obscurities.
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Meet Love At First Sound, another artist blurring the boundaries between “rapper” and “singer”
By 2015, hip-hop has permeated so many genres (hi, Florida Georgia Line…hey there, Katy Perry) and has, in turn, absorbed so many stylistic influences and ideas (inevitable in a genre almost entirely founded on sampling), it’s hard to cleanly classify artists like The Weeknd, PartyNextDoor, and Ty Dolla $ign who predominantly sing, but also rap melodically…or sing with rap cadences…and sometimes do all three and further blur the lines. They’re not rappers, but they’re certainly influenced by rap, and they fit well within the realm of hip-hop (or at least well enough for XXL to put Ty and fellow not-quite-rapper August Alsina on their most recent Freshmen cover).
Love At First Sound definitely sings. He also raps. He also sometimes raps melodically and sings with rap cadences.
Love At First Sound’s social media presence doesn’t provide many clues about his identity or personality (outside of the fact that he seems at least partially inspired by The Weeknd’s music and aesthetic). He might be from Tokyo (if his Bandcamp is to be believed). He might be from Israel (if his Soundcloud is to be believed). He appears to be gearing up to put out a project called Audra. His style thrills in variation—apocalyptic relationship post-mortem “Nothings Changed,” all-too-brief, angrily conscious “Reckless,” and lilting, acoustic send off “Fine Without You” somehow make sense in the arc of Love At First Sound’s wild pendulum swing.
(A sidenote: Much of the time, the comment section is noise, even more so when filled with submissions. Love At First Sound comes to us by way of a comment in last week’s 5 On It. Kudos to otherwise anonymous commenter “PreachersSon.”)
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Image via Joey Green
Joey Green – “Beyond”
It’s that new world order meets backpack raps
A stand out from last week’s 5 On It, Washington, D.C. rapper Joey Green returns with more impressive rapping on “Beyond.” No structure to speak of, no chorus, just Green’s agile rapping and layered, often multi-bar metaphors and ideas. He walks a fine line between accessibility and opacity, personal enough to invite listeners into his world, dense enough to force them to parse it on multiple listens.
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Image via Kevin Joye
Kevin Joye – “Broken”
A couple weeks back, Atlanta rapper and previous 5 On It entrant Kevin Joye’s manager sent me Kevin’s new mixtape Rosita House. I told him that, while it was solid, nothing on it topped standout moment “Grandma Told Me” (the song that first brought Kevin to my attention as a talent to watch) and I would pass on posting about the tape.
Understandably, my decision didn’t make Kevin very happy.
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Fine. Fair enough.
As I mentioned to Kevin’s manager, however, “hate” and “critique” aren’t necessarily one and the same. My general impression of Rosita House was that it saw a young rapper telling his story, sometimes effectively, sometimes through cliche, sometimes with impressive energy and technique, others with lesser inspiration. Out of the eight songs, nothing had the same dynamic shifts in energy and wit as “Grandma Told Me” to my ear.
Of course, in a mile-a-minute listening culture, there’s rarely time to reflect and let things marinate.
I revisited Rosita House days after its release. On multiple passes, much of my original criticism remained, but “Broken” (the tape’s penultimate song, coincidentally sequenced before “Grandma Told Me”) stood out as one of the more promising, emotional entries in Kevin’s embryonic catalog. Versatile go-to producer and Dun Deal protégé Goose serves up an enjoyable tweak on classic soul-sampling production, a perfect backdrop for Kevin’s passionate stream of consciousness.
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Image via Daze Karter
Daze Karter – “I’m Wit It”
Gritty charisma makes Charleston, South Carolina rapper Daze Karter capable of injecting a song like new single “I’m Wit It” with memorable urgency. Its hook isn’t particularly complicated. Karter isn’t an overwhelmingly technical rapper. His coarse vocal chords give his verses an intangible depth and make his limited singing range inviting and relatable to a listener like me whose career highlight as a singer was one of three leading roles in my 8th grade musical (a dubious honor in a class of people who were equally worthless when it came to being able to sing well).
Daze has something you can’t coach: character, the sort of aura that translates the loose debris of experience into sound and attitude.
Also, in a curious case of cross-pollination within a region, “I’m Wit It” was produced by New Orleans producer (and go-to for Bounce star Big Freedia). Were it not for his instantly recognizable tag, it would be almost impossible for all but the most familiar of ears to recognize the beat—one that pulls loosely from the triumph of DJ Toomp and the ascending melodies of David Banner—as the Master P-signee’s creation.
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Image via Lonny X
Lonny X – “Wednesday”
Weird, lackadaisical, freely associative, jazzy rap music isn’t really my thing most days, but every now and then the crate-digging, Stones Throw fanatic in me rears its head in search of rare collector’s items, weird, lackadaisical, freely associative, jazzy rap music, and blood.
Previous 5 On It entrant Lonny X raps with the reserved cool of the blunted, fluid, low key boasts that lope along the border of calm confidence and apathy. A partially animated, lo-fi visual and subtly off-kilter humor makes new single “Wednesday” perfect viewing and listening for those stuck to couches by the glue of the joint, piece, bong, or apple that you’ve carved out and turned into a bong.
