Noise-rap trio Clipping are poised to be a huge force in hip-hop working with a sound that finds a sweet spot between Shabazz Palaces neo-soul/afrofuturism with Death Grips’ sense of abrasion and energy. ”Bullshit” is one of the more palatable tracks from their excellent debut midcity and displays their ability to mix raw noise with swag-heavy rapping.
-PK
It’s been a long wait since we last heard from them but we still haven’t forgotten about the captivating sounds coming from UK trio A Yellow Man. They’ve finally ended the silent drought with an official name change to Hawk House and this new video for “Tidal Tendencies”. Like their early standout “3000 Miles of Youth”, “Tidal Tendencies” is a downtempo stunner that operates under a less is more ethos. For three gorgeously steady minutes, the trio take turns laying out deceptively casual verses rounded out by an r&b closer. Hawk House are combining hip-hop and r&b in ways similar to fellow UK natives Young Fathers and I couldn’t be more excited for more music from both groups as 2013 continues.
-PK
There is an amazing scene of electronic producers bubbling up in France and Paris right now and the Banana music collective is hoping to start documenting some of it with their “Live is a Banana” series. The first video features one of our blog favorites Andrea performing a stunning 14 minute set fusing trap, R&B and other branches of electronic music. The film production quality is pretty stellar so I’m looking forward to watching and listening to their future material.
-PK
Odd Future is prepping for a big year this year with Tyler’s long awaited Wolf and Earl’s Doris set to release soon. Although Odd Future has become more of a brand than a hip-hop collective recently, since his return Earl hasn’t seemed to take the same missteps that Tyler has. ”Whoa” is definitely not a misstep and provides a nice Earl reminiscent throwback to compliment the maturity of “Chum”.
-PK
The hip-hop video norms these days usually doesn’t deviate too far from the rappers involved in the song walking around their city, looking swaggy and doing fun/hoodrat/typical stuff. Impolite Society are some swaggy dudes, but, as we’ve learned from blog favorite Sidewalk Kal, they also aren’t just another hip-hop crew rapping about how swaggy they are. In the video for their awesome single “The World”, Impolite Society don’t break away from the norm (let’s be honest these dudes are swaggin), however, they still deliver the same “different” personality that makes them one of the freshest crews in hip-hop right now. In the video, the members of Impolite Society come across as normal if not still-cooler-than-you dudes. As a result, the guys deliver their thought provoking and socially conscious lines with a fittingly effortless vibe.
-PK
When Sleigh Bells first came out, people were freaking out about the maxed-out, compressed, speaker-busting noise mixed with the deceptively sweet vocals. I imagine that if more people laid their ears on DSTVV’s “Molly Soda” they’d have a similar reaction. Although it may appear at first that DSTVV completely follows the lo-fi-as-fuck tradition of Wavves, “Molly Soda” works with dynamic extremes. The verses quiet down with clear vocals and guitar strumming before exploding into the wall of fuzz chorus which is anchored down by some angelic vocals from Keel Her. The video for “Molly Soda” will definitely draw more comparisons for these dudes towards slacker bands, however, I think there may be a bit more to DSTVV that we’ll hopefully get to hear soon.
-PK
Of all the rising hip-hop groups we have our eyes on right now, we’d be most surprised if Edinburgh’s Young Fathers didn’t have a huge 2013. Their end of 2011 release Tape 1 was definitely our sleeper hit of the year and they mostly spent 2012 touring with little in the way of new music. Although their video for Tape 1 crooner “Romance” isn’t the new track we’ve been waiting for, it does have me even more hyped for whatever new material they decide to bless us with in the coming year. We’ve only had one taste of Tape 2 so far will continue to wait patiently… unless we have to wait till 2014, that’d be asking too much.
-PK
