The Urban Retro Playlist

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.

I found out about this song through my friends referral after one of his SoundCloud explorations (thanks Wole) and I've been hooked since I heard it. I want to say before I continue that Saint Jhn is my spirit animal, there's just this laid back and carefree free vibe he exudes that I find so appealing.
The song explores a different side of Urban music that hasn't particularly been categorized, this could be basis to form a new genre of music. It may fall into trap but it isn't exactly just trap it's much more soothing, slower paced and lacks the overly energetic qualities. It's more on the tempo and posses a couple of similarities with Kid Cudi's timeless classic Pursuit of Happiness.
I especially love how different and effortless the sounds is; from the vocals, to the minimal instruments, tempo and the general solemn feel. I feel like the way he has found his identity gives him the ability to impose, in the sense that there's no struggle and there is some calm air of authority from his entire sound.

The Song of the day is D.D by The Weeknd off Trilogy, which is actually a cover of Michael Jackson's 1987 classic Dirty Diana off his Bad album.
I for one was in another dimension when I listened to the Weeknd's version. The instruments we just so sublime; the drums were hit harder, the general sound was so electric and the vocals were probably even as good.
I've been listening to this song for the last couple of day and I've been on able to get it out of my head, it embodies that entirely unconventional sound from Kissland which makes me consider it his best body of work.
The song is a story about a siren who's generally infatuated with musicians more or less and how he's trying to escape her perils.
The strings from the original version is something I actually miss on the song it gave it this whole rockstar effect though I'm not so sure it would have been congruous with this version.

Well I had a cool time last weekend, went on a road trip to my old school which you can read about here and here. I took some pictures during the weekend which you'll find at the bottom of this post.
Anyway, it was the weekend and one of the songs which I played during the Trips was Hymn For The Weekend featuring Beyonce by one of my favorite band who i've written about a couple of times here. This song like Adventure of A Lifetime is pretty progressive which is not generally their orthodox sound and the sounds in my opinion can easily be grooved to there's a lot more energy to it and it consists of some earthy elements in the background.
Also the harmony when both Chris Martin and Beyonce's vocals merge is something I enjoy so much. Then when I think of what instruments were used to produce the song i'm even more amazed by the general sound for apparent simple instruments.
Something I also found amazing yet may not appear so far fetched was how the song was created from a simple thought. When I was doing my research I found out that the song was actually conceptualized in a bar, a thought crossed Chris' mind after wishing he had one of those late night club songs like Turn Down for what or something Flo-rida would do.
Then He thought: "I’d like to have a song called 'Drinks on Me' where you sit on the side of a club and buy everyone drinks because you're so fucking cool," Martin recalled. "I was chuckling about that, when this melody came, 'drinks on me, drinks on me', then the rest of the song came out. I presented it to the rest of the band and they said, 'We love this song, but there's no way you can sing "drinks on me."' So that changed into 'drink from me' and the idea of having an angelic person in your life. Then that turned into asking Beyoncé to sing on it."

The thought was reference from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hymn_for_the_Weekend