Get
ready for your ears to be ringing with the sound of distorted bass and rattling
hi-hats - it’s mostly trap bangers this week.
THE BEST:
‘Sumo’ – Denzel Curry
Did
someone steal all of Denzel’s Easter eggs? Did he step on a Lego brick? The Floridian
father of Soundcloud rap is sounding mighty angry on this new heavy banger ‘Sumo’.
As with many of Denzel’s songs, it’s packed with obscure cultural references
from Prince Zuko to Chad Hugo.
‘Watch Out!’ – Rich Brian
The shrill
synth in the beat is absolutely menacing – this might be Rich Brian’s hardest
track to date. The funeral scene in the music video accompanied by the line ‘I just killed that pussy, send your
thoughts and prayers’ also did make me chuckle. The Indonesian rapper may
be trying to move away from his meme-y origins, but I’m glad he’s still keeping
some humour in there.
‘Faceshopping’ – SOPHIE
If
you were to film my expressions whilst listening to this new SOPHIE single, it
probably wouldn’t be too dissimilar to the warping face in the music video. The
gender-blurring banger-producing experimental EDM artist seems to be commenting
on the way we all distort out physical appearance to please others. As per
usual, the instrumental is a clanking mechanical monster of a beat that itself
is continuously mutating.
‘Nice
For What’ – Drake
Drake’s
still harking on about how he hasn’t found a woman who’ll treat him right, but at
least his production is fresh. It’s less moody than his previous couple
releases and more triumphant, backed by Kanye-esque sampling and punchy 808s.
‘Moon Undah Water’ – Puma Blue
And
now for something completely different. This Parisian band’s lo-fi jazz sound has
me hooked – those raw detuned guitars and smoky vocals make me feel like I
ought to be in a French café sipping coffee and eating croissants.
THE WORST:
‘Push Back’ – Ne-Yo ft. Bebe Rexha &
Stefflon Don
Ne-Yo
is back and he’s jumping on the Afropop bandwagon. It’s basically what Drake
was doing two years ago.