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Lunice, the 23-year-old Canadian taking the electronic world by storm right now, is really just making rap beats. His stuff is a little too forward thinking to have someone rapping over it, though. The Mad Decent signee occupies the unique intersection between hip-hop and dance music, and we caught up with him to find out what he’s been listening to lately to try to get an inside look at what makes him tick, and what leads to the music he’s been putting out.
Decibel – “G.A.P.”
Lunice: “‘Gangstas and Pimps'” is by a guy from England named Decibel. The genre is what’s crazy because he produces from a hip-hop style, but coming from the UK he naturally sounds like UK Funky with voice chops and all that. But his style is definitely coming from a hip-hop and rap vibe. It’s a dope track.”
French Fries – “Champagne”
Lunice: “There are a lot of things that I like that are linked together in their sound or their genre or something, or where they’re getting their ideas from. And this song is by a guy from Paris that is practically on a juke type influence, and you can just hear that he’s a rap fan. That’s what’s pretty interesting with all of us, we all used to be super deep into hip-hop, like as a backpacker or something. That’s what I realize more and more with the people I meet. Those songs are along the lines of hip-hop but will end up more housey or dancey, but moving into other stuff cause they’re not dancey. You don’t feel corny listening to them.”
A$AP Rocky – “Peso”
Lunice: “This is one of my favorites. Mostly because, first, he’s from our generation. Second, you get his idea of being that dude who isn’t a gangsta, he’s just like us, but is working with completely different stuff, different ideas, just the stuff he grew up listening to. Because of the Internet, you have access to all this stuff, to everything. So what I imagine him being able to find shit like old Memphis, Three 6 Mafia mixtapes and shit like that. Shit you can find now but could never have before. So to see a dude of our age go in like that and make a statement, so that’s why I really like what he’s doing.
A$AP’s cool, it’s what I wanted to hear as a rapper. Because no one was busting that Memphis flow, and he’s from Harlem, right? So that’s what makes him amazing. He’s this kid that goes on the internet like us, and just looks for what he finds interesting, so that’s pretty cool.”
Aaliyah – “More Than A Woman”
Lunice: “I like playing this. Everytime I listen to that instrumental I’m like, man, that’s still relevant today. Timbaland produced it, and it’s so relevant. The flow of how she’s singing and how they placed it and everything with the chorus is just super relevant after all those years and I just love finding that.”
Camp Lo – “This Is It (Luchini)”
Lunice: “I definitely love to play this one out too. This is one of my songs. It’s just one of those songs that I want to put in by the end of my set just to show everybody that this is the shit that I was into back in my high school days. That kind of music is big to me.”
