MUSIC MAKES THE WORLD GO AROUND
Yolisa Mkele listens to all the latest tunes and then tells us what we should try
When last did you hear hip-hop that made you want to live out your fantasies as a fur coat-wearing drug dealer in New York? If the answer is never, then play Cristal Occasions (the album’s first track). Close your eyes and let visions of gritty streets and complex handshakes fill your mind. Jones’s latest album is a masterful piece of storytelling, drawing the listener into a world you can almost smell. In a landscape dominated by trap and repetitive raps, it is also invigorating to hear something that harks back to the early 2000s when Jones and his group Dipset were at the height of their powers. Combine his vivid raps with the prowess of production duo Heatmakerz and it’s easy to see how even the album’s most suburban listeners will be using drug-dealer slang by the time they reach the last track.
You should definitely listen to: Mama I Made It (feat Cam’ron), Cocaine Dreamin (feat Ball Greezy and Dave East), Sports Cars (Feat Curren$y) and Make No Issues Of It. FATHER OF ASAHD – DJ KHALED Everyone’s favourite Weight Watchers brand ambassador is back with another feature-laden album ... and it’s pretty meh. Being DJ Khaled, it’s packed full of heavy baseline and all the biggest names in music, including Cardi B, Nipsey Hussle, SZA, Nas, Rick Ross and countless others. The thing about DJ Khaled albums is that, at this point, we know what to expect from them. They’re great to play at the club or on the way to the club, but you’re not going to get anything that pushes any particular boundary. It was clearly made to do well on music charts and will fulfil its mission, but outside of that there isn’t anything special about it. SAVE ME – FUTURE
One of two things is happening with Future: either he is in a deep depression that his record label has been milking for all it’s worth, or his mental health is a particularly cynical marketing ploy. One hopes that it’s the former because Save Me, like a lot of his other work, is a cry for help packaged in trap music. This is the type of album that will have you dancing at a party right up until you actually pay attention to what is being said. In a lot of ways Future and this album remind me of the sad clown, ostensibly jovial and ready for fun but secretly driven by deep depression and loneliness.