"They can't find me, out
the country recording classics, I get money, I'm still shopping for grams not
f***ing fabrics, no this music s*** ain't payin' no bills," burgeoning
rapper Doley Bernays spits over a detached wail in new single "Prey."
The way he delivers the starving artist trope in his half-snarl, you know he's
not kidding. Succeeding is an exigent demand for the Brooklyn native. He has to
"make it" because failing would send him back to a frigid place where
"these n***** wanna murder me." Where killing is synonymous with
surviving.
If "Prey"'s narrative
scope sounds bleak, it is and producers Matthew Burnett and Jordan Evans pay
that lyrical desolation the utmost respect. Without Just In Case
collaborator/A$AP Rocky
producer MP Williams around, Burnett and Evans concoct a cloud rap beat
that's insular instead of inviting. The drum machine snaps like a tightly
pulled rubber band; leaving no room to run through. A synthesizer crawls at a snail’s
pace before jumping into livelier "doot doot doots." When Bernays
recalls "saying my prayers under the stars," another layer of guitar
is peeled away. Each faintly ringing note is a pinprick to your consciousness,
reminding you what Bernays is saying isn't far from the truth. "N***** die
every day," he incisively puts it. Though none of the deceased have an
opportunity to speak, Bernays provides them with first class representation on
"Prey."
Doley Bernays' new EP Bond Place Hotel is out August 26.
"This song is not about kissing or anything like that," those are the only words electronic/dance/cloud-rap producer Ryan Hemsworth has to offer on Soundcloud about his wonderfully airy new instrumental "Every Square Inch". In terms of descriptions, the one crafted by the Halifax, Nova Scotia native may contain one of the more bald-faces lies in music in 2014. Hearing Qrion's aching wordless vocals paired with Hemsworth's sprite-like effects, a romantic tingle will inevitably creep up your spine.
There's just too much abounding joy in "Every Square Inch", too many bright keyboard sparkles and carbonated drum machine fizzes to avoid the "warm tingly feeling." Listening to the song on repeat while I write this review, I can't keep from grinning. A smile spreads across my face and stays put. "Every Square Inch" is the sort of track you'd hear inspiring a character to profess their love to someone in an indie rom-com. As it grows slightly more propulsive, their heart beat quickens. And whenever they're done speaking, there's a gradually picked guitar to greet them. Vaguely reminiscent of the Microphones' "I Want Wind to Blow", the guitar becomes a cloud to rest on as you float down. Of course with such excitement, it's hard to fall very far.
Categorizing 21 year old rapper
Kitty's work as a "joke" is still oddly pliable in 2014. Though she's
been practicing her craft for two plus years, releasing stellar tapes of
bleary-eyed music like D.A.I.S.Y.
Rage and last year's Impatiens,
many staunch hip hop fans see it all as hokum. They hear the fragile
vocals and weightless cloud rap beats and go running for the hills to find
solace in muscular boom-bap. Not so much a male/female issue, they're agitated
by a perceived lack of seriousness. Any MC who isn't a consummate professional
isn't worth their time.
That said Kitty's been
deceptively serious since the jump. Sure in "Okay Cupid"
she was lovingly ripping off "Thinking
Bout You" for a few seconds and waiting around for "drunk dials
at 3:30 AM", but there was a heartbreaking obsessiveness to it. Kitty
herself acknowledges "I'm not familiar with this type of devotion"
and that admission guarantees the relationship she's "idealizing"
won't last.
Despite wobbly new single
"marijuana" not being much concerned with relationships, it's still
consequential. Gliding atop Chrome Blaze's chortling electronics, Kitty frets
about not landing a label deal and falling into obscurity. She's at a point
where she has to assure her mom she's "doing great" because it's been
awhile since she's seen a Klonopin. To stay in control, Kitty rattles off
everything she's not going to do: "not gonna piss on the carpet, not gonna
roll on the ground." And if none of those promises land, she'll make jokes
to cope. "I've got all the rays Imma be a sunshine, making raisins out all
of the grapes," she cracks. Sure Kitty can be humorous, but that's not all
she's about.
Kitty's heading out on tour at the end of the month for a string of U.S./Canadian dates which you can find below.
Tour Dates:
6/30 Columbus, OH- A&R Music Bar
7/1 Detroit, MI- Shelter
7/2 Cleveland Heights, OH- Grog Shop
7/4 Toronto, ON- Wrongbar
7/5 Montreal, QC- La Vitriola
7/7 Cambridge, MA- The Sinclair
7/8 New York, NY- Highline Ballroom
7/9 Philadelphia, PA- District N9ne
7/10 Washington, DC- Rock N Roll Hotel
7/11 Raleigh, NC- King’s Barcade
7/12 Atlanta, GA- Masquerade
7/24 Dallas, TX- Club Dada (w. Awkwafina)
Though it now
lays claim to a Wikipedia
entry, "cloud rap" is still a nebulous subgenre.
"Dreamy" is a word that consistently comes up when describing the
style, but it’s far from a concrete descriptor. My idea of dreamy is nodding
off on a couch and floating around in the ether. Someone else may prefer to be
swaddled in bed sheets and slip into a world where they're a superhero.
Defining "dreamy" or "dreams" in general is somewhat of a
fool's errand because they're involuntary and random; and quite often like
snowflakes no two are the same.
However if you
were going to tackle the task of defining "cloud rap" in 2014, Rome
Fortune's collaboration with electronic artist Four
Tet would be a tremendous aid. The pairing of the upstart Atlanta rapper
and the English producer reads as awkward, but a listen to Fortune's stellar Beautiful
Pimp from 2013 says otherwise. That first installment of the now burgeoning
series was rife with the same type of spacey, exploratory beats
Four Tet's been doing for a
decade-plus. The only real difference being that after 10-plus years in the
game, Four Tet's exploration has an end goal in mind. And for the gorgeous
"One Time For", he imparts the wisdom of his wandering intentionality
on Fortune. The verses are chock-full of chaotic militaristic drum rolls and
noodling synthesizer, but Fortune stays focused on his "heaven-sent
grind." When Tet gently eases the dial down during the chorus, to the
point where only muted beats remain, Fortune could easily put a hat over his
face and doze off. He doesn't. Instead he pushes further and demands an answer
to "that hatin why you do that?" For all of Four Tet's
"dreamy" production, Fortune stays wide awake and creeps up on one of
rap's best tracks in 2014.
(According to Fortune's Soundcloud page this is one of two tracks between Fortune and Four Tet, but an entire album of this music would be tremendous.)
