The Urban Retro Playlist

One of my favorite tapes this year so far has been Leap of Faith by Juls, which is a wonderful blend of laid back but still very progressive and considerably upbeat music ironic right ? Anyway the song of the day is actually not from that tape but it wouldn't be hard to believe if it was just one of those songs you recorded for an album but eventually didn't make it to the album for one reason or the other. Definitely not because it wasn't it wasn't good enough though.
The song posses sounds that embody Banky style of music, said to be pioneered by Mr Eazi but another salient individual in the development of this sound is Juls who has prominent in a good amount of his songs. I hope at some point they (Juls & Mr Eazi) work on a project together.
Any Rock your body is heavily influenced by the banku sound and Burna Boy maintains a laid back demeanor and is able to impose his style and personality properly although the song.
Also present are some dancehall elements in the song but they are so subtle, well blended and entirely smooth to listen to. I especially love the array of the various drums on the instrumental. This in my opinion is the closest anyone has shown they posses as much chemistry as the Burna Boy LeriQ duo, I hope to see more collaborative efforts with them in the future.

So it's sometime in December 2016 and its mind blowing news to me that two relatively unknown upcoming nigerian artists have songs on the billboard charts. I mean I was already acquinted with previous bodies of work they had put out and I just wondered "what if these guys actually realize the platform they've been able too get to and decide to work on something together?" To my surprise they actually put out a body of work in April 2017. I mean I was surprised because there wasn't any prior collaboration or affiliation between the two artists. That not withstanding they produced a brief but very solid body of work. Words that instantly come to my mind when you mention this tape are Love, Soul, Smooth, Harmony,  Progressive and Transitions.
The tape starts off slowly with "Ocean" which is filled with numerous vocal harmonies and in verse transitions. It is very expressive and sets the general tone of the tape altogether. Then comes "Don't" which from my point of view describes a complex relationship where there have been intentionally undefined feelings. The begining of Odunsi's verse is redolent of Kevin Lyttles 2004 smash hit "Let Me Hold You". The nostalgia gives a certain appeal, so does the part where the brass instruments are given the spotlight. Right after that part is where I think the tape goes from very good to great, there's an effortless transition from "Don't" to "Stay" which if you're not paying attention to you wouldn't even realize the song has changed. "Stay" is also very progressive, maybe a little more than "Don't". It posseses some subtle and well blended Caribbean elements. The prime focus in my opinion is telling the other party in the complex relationship not to leave. At the end of Stay is yet another smooth transition into the concluding song of the project "War". The tempo of this song is slowed compared to the preceeding song. It ends up telling the partner they should resolve things and avoid getting into a feud. There are some very soft drums which really do it for me at several points in the song, especially the ones that become prominent close to the end of the song.
I've lost count of the amount of times I've listened to this body of work and I feel like it's going to be one of the best I'll hear all year.

Uhm I need to work on how I name stuff, that being said this isn't an album album I mean it has just four songs but we move. One thing I enjoy about music is an apparent development in individuals sounds. I've been listening to Dusten Truce for a while and watched how he's working and is creating a "voice that's very distinct. In this body of work he entire embraced a hip hop direction as opposed to more mixes genres which he usually embraces.