Street Sounds #7

 
Music

Missives from the intersection of rave, hip hop, dancehall and the infinite cosmos

Rejjie Snow – Nights Over Georgia

SO it's summer time and the air's real hot and I'm telling you it's time for some jazz. Enter Dublin's finest. Rejjie’s come strong on his new single, cutting up the form like Burroughs did books. In the space of three minutes he woozes and stutters from light jazz croon to backpack boombap and right back again, dusty grooves like an Irish Dilla. In the wrong hands this was always gonna be a big dutty mess, but Rejjie’s on point. This single and the last single were both sick, so, simple mathematics: When the album comes it’s gonna be heavy. Give it a year and you’ll see him in the broadsheets…

 

 

Joey Onabolu – Lullabies / Spring Break

And speaking of new hip hop/ RnB talent, this guy, Joey Onabolu, 19 years old and hailing from Toronto (can I get a lazy Drake comparison? Not from me kids…) has just slung out a mixtape of lo-fi laptop soul, and the commenters over on the mixtape market DatPiff are getting all quivery about just how dope it is. Trust me, compliments do not come easy on DatPiff. My two favourites cuts from the tape are 'Lullabies' and 'Spring Break' – ‘Lullabies’ is the track everyone’s talking about, and it’s easy to hear why, with Onabolu emoting like classic Ginuwine over a beat that turns smashing glass into the tinkling of a music box. 'Spring Break' is listed as an interlude on the cover artwork, but at over 3 minutes I’m happy to call it a proper track – and those drums! Mercy! The sun is hot as hell today and this is as fast as I wanna go. You can listen to the whole shebang right here:

 

Zebra Katz – Tear That House Up

I lied. I wanna go faster. When you come with a first single as big as 'Ima Read', the follow up is always going to be a daunting task. Good then that Zebra Katz stares that task straight in the eye, stripes his head neon, slips on a dayglo Keith Haring onesie and shimmies his way to Give-A-Shit-Ville. He's got Herve on production on 'Tear The House Up', and the UK man has done a great job, restraining his cheeseball tendencies to  leave plenty of space for the star – and make no mistake, ZK is a star. Remember when Busta Rhymes was a wild, crazy force of nature with videos that blew your mind and rhymes that kicked your arse from one end of the dance floor to the other? Looks like he's had his crown well and truly snatched.

 

 

JMC – Sturridge Dance

And finally, you may have noticed that there's something about football going on this summer. In lieu of a decent official England World Cup song (and let's face it, there hasn't been a good one since '3 Lions' – plus that thing from last time with James Corden and Dizzee was the biggest pile of eargash I've ever, ever heard) grime/ road rap geezer JMC has come up with the goods. 'Sturridge Dance' is pretty representative of where most grime artists find themselves these days; ultra slow and real trappy. Rather than concerning itself with whips, bitches, Ps or feds, JMC has decided to focus on Liverpool (and England) striker Daniel Sturridge, and the funky little dance he does when he slots one in. In my world, this song would shoot in at number one, and stay there all of the 4 – 6 games it takes for us to get kicked out of the cup. JMC probably needs to actually start selling it for that to happen though. Get the video sorted, get the track on iTunes and you're in fam..!