Hailed as The Street Poet in his hometown (New York City), rapper NATTY BOI ZOE urges us to count our blessings and cast aside any societal idea of success in his brand new video for single ‘Fortune’.
There’s some tough verses that resonates with the soul…so pin back your ears and have a listen below…
Hailing from Memphis, Tennessee, BLEU HUNCHO has dropped the video for ‘Huncho Flow’.
Using a very creative and unique flow, Huncho brings the listener into his life and events. With the success of his new single, “Huncho Flow,” he has proclaimed to be the best artist Memphis has yet to see…check him out below…
Upon announcing the album Don’t Trip which is slated for release via Forward Music Group and Black Buffalo Records on 22th July, Halifax, Nova Scotia-based artist, Lance Sampson – aka AQUAKULTRE – unveils his new single also titled, ‘Don’t Trip.’
The CBC Searchlight award-winning rapper and neo-soul writer, who has previously scooped Polaris Prize nominations, is joined by over 20 guests from locations spanning the globe. This roll call includes New Jersey hip-hop hero Ransom, South African R&B singer Amarafleur, Toronto-based R&B and pop artist, Tafari Anthony, and Halifax’s Zamani Miller, daughter of Delvina Bernard from legendary a capella group Four The Moment.
Despite its massive guest list, Don’t Trip is a deeply personal project. Sampson began working on the full-length follow-up to his breakout album, Legacy, in March 2020 while the pandemic lockdown forced him to remain inside with his family. The album was originally conceptualized as a five-song EP based on the first three weeks of a budding relationship with his partner, Julia when they barely left her bedroom. Eating ice cream and pizza, drinking wine, and listening to Lauryn Hill records was the start of a passionate love affair.
“I called the album Don’t Trip because when Julia and I first met we were both in a place of being tired of looking for someone,” Sampson explains. “Both of us were getting out of exhausting relationships where we had done everything in our power to make them work. Once we met each other, it was like closing that chapter of looking for the right person.”
This first single started out with listening to Snow’s “Be Like You” over and over and over, it inspired Sampson to want to make something that good and that ambitious. “Once I actually started to sit down to compose the beat,” he explains, “I found myself picking up a little keyboard Rich Aucoin donated to a studio we were raising money for. After a couple of hours, the beat was made, and it wasn’t too long after that the lyrics just started flowing. Jools [Julia] kept on telling me that it was the “jam” and I didn’t really believe it at first until I started showing the progress to other people, and they always pointed this one out, out of the bunch. “Don’t Trip” is just about reassuring each other in a relationship that this is for real, this is long term, and no matter what, we got enough trust in one another where we don’t have to worry about anything.“
In the process of reaching out to musicians he admired, Don’t Trip expanded into the most ambitious project of Aquakultre’s career. “I’m For Real” finds him trading bars with Ransom against a g-funk backdrop, with cuts by local legend DJ Uncle Fester. “Getting Close” shows off Sampson’s rapping skills with a little help from Black Buffalo’s Sargeant X Comrade. “It’s All Good”, featuring Lakita Wiggins and Trobiz, was inspired by Musiq Soulchild’s classic album Aijuswanaseing. Don’t Trip wraps up like a brown paper bag in Sampson’s closing collaboration with New Jack Swing duo DJ Chidow and Vadell Gabriel, bringing those house party vibes back in full effect.
Check out the official video for Aquakultre’s single below…
Hip hop artist, songwriter and producer Luke Boyd – better known as CLASSIFIELD – shares his latest acoustic single and video for ‘Accept It’ (Retrospected) featuring Brett Matthews, the third release from the anticipated RETROSPECTED, his forthcoming hip hop acoustic album due out later this spring.
Directed by The Boyd Brothers, the video for ‘Accept It’ (Retrospected) unveils a real-life account of some of the everyday hard ships, experiences, and losses one may encounter in life. The narrative (penned by Classified) explains that while it’s an understatement to say that dealing with grief or loss is painful, there comes a time that we must ‘accept it’ and with a little effort, try to move on in life.
About the song, Classified shares, “This is a song I wrote after watching friends go through similar situations in real life. I think we all know someone that has lost a loved one to cancer and we’ve seen how that loss affects the friends and family around them in a variety of ways. At some point in life, we realize that we will mourn the loss of a loved one, which is a painful experience, but we know that we must ‘accept it’ and find a way to keep on living for those that are still here and for ourselves.”
“In the video I really wanted to portray that sentiment in the first verse. And, in the second verse, I speak about men and women who have had to go away to fight wars and defend our country, and then return home and have difficulty dealing with life after war – where often the small everyday life problems don’t compare to the things they have witnessed and gone through. It can’t be easy, and I wanted to capture those feelings in this video.”
Check out the heartfelt video for ‘Accept It’ below…
Tennessee rapper SLATT ZY‘s contemplative trap-soul single, ‘Feel It in My Soul’, finds the rising star at his most vulnerable, referencing the struggles and loss that have shaped him. It’s another tantalizing, melodic tidbit from his life following the heart-wrenching ‘Hard To Live.’
Zy, who turned heads throughout 2021 with ‘Lean On’ which has amassed over 1.6 million video views, while ‘Don’t You Fold’ is over the million mark too. Both tracks showcase the young artist’s versatility as he details his deepest lows and celebrates his unlikeliest triumphs.
With critical acclaim from Lyrical Lemonade, EARMILK, HotNewHipHop, and more, Zy has established a reputation as one of the most soulful, and honest MCs in the game. Song by song, he is building a world that’s difficult to face, but even harder to look away from. With singles as tangibly powerful as ‘Feel It in My Soul,’ Zy is one to watch in 2022.
Watch the Marlo Taylor directed video, which is a moving tribute with Zy and his friends bonding over another senseless loss. Zy honours his friend by celebrating his life…
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