08/11/19

Omar Apollo has released another single “Hit Me Up”, this time collaborating with Dominic Fike. I like this one so much more than “Frio” which he released last week. This newer single still has Kenny Beats producing but instead of the borderline annoying and basic Dominican style backing track there’s a steady bassline with drums which I’m much more into. Apollo and Fike are both definitely two of the fastest growing artists this year so the two of them on the same song’s pretty perfect. Kenny Beats has done a lot of work with Dominic Fike so I’m getting the impression that this is the start of him creating a lot with Omar. Apollo’s doing a UK tour and I’m seeing him in a couple weeks for the first time, have a look at the dates and see if there’s any shows near you.

Frank Ocean’s put out a couple new releases recently that are party singles influenced by European dance music. The tracks are filled with self-aware homages to his shallow pill popping lifestyle- and iterate his escape from the parts of his psyche he wants to forget about and enable the listener to do the same. The collaborations with DJs such as Sango and Justice and rapper Skepta continue to display Frank’s wide pool of influence as well as maintaining his usual feel, showing a new direction for the singer/songwriter after his critically acclaimed albums “Blonde” and “Endless” that came in 2016 and the single stream that flowed through 2017. The new music has been welcomed by his fan base and makes an interesting listen. “In My Room” and “DHL” are the only released that are available through streaming, but a lot of other tracks have surfaced on Youtube after being premiered at his “Prep +” club night in New York.

Yesterday Mura Masa released “Deal Wiv It”. A song which is set to be released with his next album and features slowthai. The songs a lot more upbeat and fun than a lot of slowthai’s stuff without the usual political message he likes. The sort of spoken word gives me an impression of a younger Sleaford Mods/The Streets/Slaves (sometimes). I’d never heard of Mura Masa before, the only reason this song was brought to my attention is because of slowthai, although I think I might try listening to some of his other stuff. It’s a nice song, simple and one that you can listen to quite happily.


Earl Sweatshirt’s just released an album called “Feet of Clay” earlier in the week. Pretty arrogantly, all I know about Earl Sweatshirt was related to his time with Tyler the Creator and Odd Future. This was the first solo stuff of his that I’d ever properly listened to. The music’s pretty dark and heavy but I quite like it, despite having 7 songs on the album its only 15 minutes longs which makes it seem like more of an EP. We’ll call it a project. Out of all the songs I’d probably say I like “MTOMB” best although the whole project wasn’t what I was expecting from someone who played a big part in Odd Future but as I said, I like it. Only criticism is it could do with being a little longer though it got a lot of criticism for its quality of production online.