Every week we scour the record bins for new music to share with you – it’s That New New! This morning we suffered through the entire Bjork album because we love you, and unless you’re into aimless singing about who knows what over a backdrop of seagulls and someone grunting, you’ll probably do best to skip it and and go straight to these gems:
We still love rappin’ ass rappers, and Fabolous & Jadakiss are two of the best ever. Friday On Elm Street (because Jada’s real name is Jason and Fabo starts with an F, I guess?) has a few clunkers, but also plenty of servicable bars over traditional NY beats. The song with Future feels forced, but overall we give it two claws up.
Frank Ocean has a gorgeous new single called “Provider,” and it has drums! Watch the lyric video above, or stream it here.
At this point either you love Burial or you don’t; his new one is a bit more housey than you’d expect. It’s called “Rodent” and you can listen to it here.
All this plus new music from Cassady Locke, Tory Lanez, and more:
CyHi The Prynce’s record No Dope On Sundays has a crazy list of guests – Kanye, Travis Scott, Pusha T, Schoolboy Q, 2 Chainz – but our favorite is “Nu Africa,” featuring poet Ernestine Johnson. It’s already a really dope song, with CyHi spitting about repatriation over a filthy chop of Kool & The Gang, but then Johnson’s spoken verse at the end just sends chills down your spine.
We featured rapper/singer 6LACK’s “That Far” in the spring, and now his album FREE 6LACK has arrived. On first listen it’s great, especially the bonus track “One Way,” featuring T-Pain. To be honest this one is better than anything on T-Pain’s new album.
Weirdly, both Ashanti & Roy Woods have new songs called “Say Less,” and both are pretty great! All these songs are on our That New New Q4 playlist, plus new ones by Demo Taped, Miguel and PnB Rock:
Cam’ron’s legacy in rap is such that if he never released another song he would still be considered one of the greatest rap iconoclasts of all time. And while he will likely never top his epic run with Dipset from 2002-2006, he still drops good records (unlike, say, Eminem). Listening to him talk about selling drugs on Lenox Ave in the 90s is crack rap for dads. But he has bars, which may not be important to millenial rap fans but we can’t help smiling when he spits lines like
Baby turn around, yeah, you the one I called
Her friend said what you want?
I looked and said none of yall
Gold bottling
Hoes hollering
Funky fresh in the flesh
Dave Koresh
Cult following
A King Solomon, look at him
Not a thing bothers him
On the corner, chicken wing Gobbling
Cam always has one or two absurd samples on his shit, and on The Program it’s “Lean” (which uses a choral version of Bill Withers “Lean On Me”) and “Dime After Dime” (Cyndi Lauper “Time After Time”). On “Coleslaw” he dunks on Kanye, and… you know what, we usually don’t go long on these reviews, and we have other releases to talk about, so just listen to the tape!
Chromeo has a huge billboard in Times Square right now, so god knows they don’t need our help promoting their new single, but it’s undeniably great and jumped into the TNN playlist immediately upon release.
Jidenna, who had a massive hit with “Classic Man” last year, is back with a new EP called Boomerang. It’s real smooth, and it’s kind of hard to pick a favorite, though the title track is excellent.
Petit Biscuit is a Frenchman who makes very inoffensive house. His new record is Presence, and “Problems” featuring Lido has definitely earned a spot in The Rub warmup playlist.
Okay, look out for our new mix series launching tomorrow, and watch this space for more new music next week!
xo The Rub
Miguel has a lot of hits at this point, and “Told You So” is another sureshot, with strong 80s pop vibes – call him Miguel Jackson – and a great video. He just announced his third album, and we can’t wait.
Life is pretty great for Offset these days; first he got engaged to Cardi B, then he landed not one, but two songs on our “That New New” playlist. The Migos rapper has a brand new project with 21 Savage & Metro Boomin, Without Warning, and “Ghostface Killers” is our pick, featuring Travis Scott. And Offset is also on “Patek Water,” our favorite from Super Slimey by Future and Young Thug. So many collaborations, it’s hard to keep track! (BTW we had to look up Patek Water – Patek Phillipe is a high end Swiss watch company, and water obviously = ice).
dvsn just dropped their second album on Drake’s OVO Sound imprint and it’s real solid. The harmonies on Morning After remind us of traditional 90s R&B like Boys II Men, with 2017 production. And “P.O.V.” is especially hypnotic, with chopped and screwed flourishes thrown in on the syrup-slow soundbed.
Every week we add songs to our “That New New” playlist. Give us a follow on Spotify to hear new shit right when it comes out!
Gangstarr had a song back in the day called “Mostly Tha Voice” where Guru literally rapped about how his voice sounded better than every other rapper, and you know what, it was true. But if Kevin Gates was around back in 1994, Guru would have had a weaker argument. Gates’s voice is deep and rich, to the point where we would be happy listening to him just read the phone book. But it’s not just the voice; Gates picks great beats and spits absolute realness over them in his Barry White baritone. Plus we don’t know if Guru could sing because the only gangster singer back then was Warren G, but Kevin Gates can croon like a songbird. His new tape is called By Any Means 2 and it might not have a hit like “2 Phones” but it’s still jammin’ all the way through.
More on the pop side than Kevin Gates, Ty Dolla $ign is one of the best out right now; his new album is Beach House 3. The features are crazy – Pharrell, Lil Wayne, The-Dream, YG, Future, Swae Lee, Skrillex, Damian Marley, Tory Lanez – like, really crazy. It’s a great record, and our pick is Dawsin’s Breek (get it?) featuring Jeremih.
Ever since Ryan Hemsworth remixed Future “Turn On The Lights” and somehow magically made the best song even better, we’ve been checking for his shit. Some of it has been a little hit or miss; like a lot of the Soundcloud generation, the emphasis is sometimes on quantity over quality, but “Hunnid” featuring Yakki and E-40, is definitely not a miss.
Canblaster is fucking genius, and “Invoc Dolemn (Canblaster Live in the Studio at 3AM),” off his new remixes album, stretches out a song from last year into ethereal house bliss.
We skipped That New New last week because we were busy talking about Halloween, but we still added new songs to the playlist, from Walker & Royce, Kastle, Four Tet, Cut Copy and more. Give us a follow!, will ya?
Nick Catchdubs directed this new video for Sammy Bananas, starring his very potty-mouthed toddler! So Sammy is a great DJ and musician, you can hear him playing sax on “21,” which is already impressive, but you have to admire the dedication of someone willing to bring a life into this world simply to star in a music video. DJ Khaled and Sammy, that’s pretty much the list of DJs who have that kind of forethought and drive. If this isn’t played at Arthur’s wedding when he grows up, I’m walking out.
ALSO, Sammy has a remix out for B. Bravo “Freak It,” which we added to our TNN playlist but didn’t talk about yet – it’s dope too and you should for sure check it out.
Riton had one of our favorite songs of the summer, “Money,” and he’s back with “Deeper,” a majestic gospel-house anthem featuring MNEK. They interpolate C&C Music Factory & Arethra Franklin’s “Pride (A Deeper Love),” which is a little risky as it’s one of the top 10 or 20 house records of all time, but they do it great justice. Riton can do no wrong as far as we’re concerned, and this will probably be a massive hit in Europe going into the winter.
We can’t say it enough times, follow us on Spotify to listen to all these songs and more, as we’re adding new favorites all the time. We’ve just added tracks by Gucci Mane, Kastle, Disciples and more!
We quietly announced a couple of weeks ago that we’re making Spotify playlists now, so ICYMI, jump on that and give us a follow!
So, new albums by Kelela, AC Slater and Jhene Aiko!
Kelela makes pillowy R&B with excellent production, and the album is so consistent that it’s kind of hard to pick a favorite. The whole record is like a breezy nap after epic sex. Jhene Aiko’s record is not a disimilar vibe, but with a few big features, including our favorite rapper turnt singa of the last few, Swae Lee (of Rae Sremmurd). AC Slater is an old friend, but we’re completely unbiased in saying this album bangs. Outsiders has a UK house sound throughout, with a ton of great vocalists – it’s full on party music for discerning ravers. Alright, we’re off to work on our costumes for Oct 28 at The Bell House, so until next week, keep it wavey.
Announcement: Spotify Playlists
Posted: September 27, 2017 Filed under: Rub Radio, Spotify, That New NewNot sure what took us so long, but we’ve finally joined the rest of humanity in 2017 in making playlists on Spotify. Well ok, we do know what took us so long: we’ve been putting a lot of work in every month on Rub Radio for at least 12 years, and it feels like a bummer to share music without mixing it on turntables (or at least in Ableton) BUT you can’t deny the convenience of Spotify. We’re going to keep giving you a Rub Radio mix every month on Brooklyn Radio, and we’ll keep picking out new records on Mondays for our long-running feature That New New, but now you can also follow us on Spotify. To kick things off, we compiled all the TNN tracks from the summer, above. Keep checking back, as we will be adding more playlists each week.
TNN stays with the fire as the seasons turn to fall and we’ve definitely got some interesting new gems for you this week. First up is a big collab cut from Rapsody, who first came to notoriety with her appearance on Kendrick’s “To Pimp A Butterfly” LP. He returns the favor on her just released new LP along with Lance Skiiwalker on the smoking tune “Power”. Next we’ve got a new one from Maggie Rogers, who’s been featured in this column before. She’s the one that got Pharrell to tear up hearing her music in a NYU masterclass, remember? Her career has blossomed since then with a debut EP, tons of sold out shows, appearances on late night TV, etc. She’s released a great goodbye for now tune in “Split Stones” that sends her into a much deserved break. Finally, we’ve got an up-and-coming rap trio out of AZ that’s just dropped a tune that feels like the heyday of The Neptunes and Timbaland producing party cuts. Injury Reserve’s “See You Sweat” simply bangs and lord knows we need some new club ammo for the midtempo sets. Check out all 3 tunes below in full.
Juicy J’s new tape is out, hosted by Taylor Gang. If you’re a Three 6 Mafia fan, you already know what to expect – hilarious, over-the-top rap songs, simple and plain. Here are three more new songs we’re jamming:
“On Hold” was already our favorite song off of I See You, The xx’s album from last winter. That Hall & Oates sample over Arthur Baker sound-alike 808 drums just gets stuck in your head! And the video brings to mind nothing if not Dazed & Confused, brilliantly channeling that tension between heartbreak and ecstasy in a small town Texas high school. And so this new Jamie xx Remix takes both vocals and sample from the original and builds up a beautiful deep house record, translating it perfectly for the club. Alasdair McLellan, the photographer who is responsible for a handful of xx videos, remixed his OG video, speeding up the edits to fit Jamie’s vocal chops – pretty clever!
Yes we talked about Syd last week, deal with it! The Cool Kids are back after a six year hiatus, and their new record features Jeremih, A-Trak, Smoke DZA, and a whole host of underground Chicago rappers. The vibe is kind of timeless hip-hop – breakbeats, samples and lyrics never go out of style.
LA’s Nosaj Thing (pr. “no such thing”) really thrives as a producer of full length albums, and he just released a new one on Innovative Leisure entitled Parallels. We always vibe to his LPs, which are more for the headphones than for the club, though there are a few uptempo tracks here and there. It’s mostly beautiful instrumentals, but all three vocal features are terrific – Steve Spacek, Zuri Marley and Kazu Makino. This is Nosaj Thing’s second collaboration with Kazu (vocalist for Blonde Redhead), after 2012’s “Eclipse/Blue.”