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Image via Sampa the Great
5 On It is a feature that looks at five of the best under-the-radar rap findings from the past two weeks, highlighting new or recently discovered artists, or interesting obscurities.
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Image via Ugly God
Ugly God – “Booty From A Distance”
The internet is fucking awesome and I just needed you to know that this song exists if you didn’t already.
Happy New Year.
(And if you think I’m kidding and starting off 2016’s first edition of 5 On It with a song called “Booty From A Distance” is my idea of a joke, do two things for me: 1 – Listen all the way through and try not to smile—then try to get the chorus out of your head; 2 – Remember that rap music can be fun and funny—not everything has to be To Pimp A Butterfly)
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Image via Sampa The Great
Sampa The Great – “Blue Boss”
Zambian-born, Botswana-raised, and Sydney-based artist Sampa The Great raps with a sense of tremendous purpose. Even when she settles into mellower moods, her words and diction suggest resolute selection, every syllable chosen for meaning or aesthetic or both. Hers is the sort of polished craft that takes root in extensive study and practice, a sharpening of skill that masquerades as effortless ability.
Of course, talent of this order undoubtedly comes in part from a place that can’t be taught or molded, but songs like recently released “Blue Boss” suggest a perceptive, precise practitioner, an artist with enviable attention to detail. Listening to Sampa rap is a joy in itself, an aesthetic pleasure occurring before you begin to unpack the meaning behind appearances.
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Image via Jesse James Solomon
Jesse James Solomon – “YPT”
London’s Jesse James Solomon raps with concerted clarity, steely calm monotone making each of his words seem calculated on break-up song “YPT.” While the song succeeds largely on its combination of gauzy atmosphere and tightly scripted rapping, the inventive, stylishly executed video from director Noah Lee gives “YPT” added wait—the rare hip-hop video that bears more in common with Being John Malkovich and the work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet than what one might traditionally expect of the genre.
“I tried to be as visually honest as I could to meet what was in my mind when I first listened to the song,” says Lee of the video. “Jesse’s music has such a moody, hypnotic ambience to it I found myself—against all careful preparation—improvising a lot during the shoot to get the pacing right, the rhythm of it.”
The surreal end product commands attention, well worth two minutes and forty-seven seconds of viewing time in an era when can scarcely focus our brains for more than fleeting moments at time.
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Image via Cloud Atrium
Cloud Atrium – “The Lonely Files”
Typically when I’m feeling wistful about failed relationships or past indiscretions, I stew in my sorrows to some Burial, Kevin Garrett, or Elliott Smith, or otherwise jump through the looking glass and stir my latent degeneracy with Future or steel my nerves with Rick Ross (or someone similarly invincible sounding). I don’t typically reach for rap songs about relationships, largely because few current rappers really ruminate on anything other than the Bacchanalian benders that happen in the wake of break ups or prevent proper romantic partnerships from ever even forming.
Sure, there’s this dude Drake and he raps about his feelings and women going through his phone and women occasionally calling his phone for very particular reasons, but a lot of the time he feels like he’s running down a series of rhyming Facebook confessionals rather than talking about what actually goes wrong when a relationship falls apart (to be far, some of his songs tackle modern love with a depth unrivaled by his peers, but then there are also songs like “Hotline Bling” that feel like a Tinder exchange came to life…and maybe that is modern love).
If you don’t feel like defaulting to Drake and you want some current rap music about failed relationships that feels like it actually takes time to say something insightful, you could do far worse than Philadelphia rapper Cloud Atrium’s “The Lonely Files,” as a song in which, as he puts it, “A young man comes to grips with his fuck ups in a past relationship. All he has now is a lonely bottle.”
“The Lonely Files” is honest, funny because it’s painfully relatable, and smartly conceived—a bit rough around the edges, a bit loose, and truthful enough to feel like drunken gut-spilling.
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Image via Jay IDK
Jay IDK – “Hello (Freestyle)”
Recording a new song—let alone something deemed a “freestyle”—over a classic instrumental in 2016 feels like an ill-advised idea conceived roughly a decade too late to be deemed fresh, let alone worth four minutes of listening time.
When Maryland rapper Jay IDK sent me his recent “Hello (Freestyle),” I imagined it was something far worse: A freestyle over Adele’s “Hello.” Instead, I got a fiery three minutes and 44 seconds of rapping over Raekwon’s instantly recognizable “Ice Cream.” What should have been a poor choice proved a refreshing revisit. Jay’s passion and eye for detail in his writing bring new life to old lands, a fiery statement of purpose from a rising talent.
