Don's Breeze

Two-9 - World Gone Crazy

With so much good hip hop coming out of Atlanta just now and only so much time to listen to the amount of great material from the likes of OG Maco, Young Thug, Makonnen, Key!, and more, I somehow let the hip hop collective Two-9 pass me by over the past few years. 

I am familiar with one or two of their members and co-founder Key!, however their new mixtape B4FRVR is the first one i've downloaded. This is mainly due to their association with one of hip hop's biggest producers Mike Will Made-It. Two-9 are signed to Mike Will's EarDrummers Entertainment label and have been taking a back seat as the label concentrated on their other star signing Rae Sremmurd. 

Now Rae Sremmurd the biggest rookies in hip hop just now, attention can be passed to Two-9 who have released a brilliant new mixtape that actually features Swae Lee and Slim Jxmmi of Rae Sremmurd. Not that the record needs any more features with the collective consisting of Curtis Williams along with the groups FatKidsBrotha (Johnny & Dave) and Retro Su$h! (CEEJ & Jace).

B4FRVR could have passed as an LP with such an all star production team on board, from Mike Will himself to Metro Boomin and Childish Major. One of the best tracks on the mixtape 'World Gone Crazy' has just received it's video via WHH which you can watch above. Still not particularly sure who is who in the group, but i'll work that out once i've enjoyed the mixtape some more. 

download for free here

Shlohmo - EMERGE FROM SMOKE

Shlohmo - BURIED

WeDidIt and True Panther are probably two of my favourite record labels due the their artist rosters and quality of musical output in general.

About a week ago or so I noticed through each label’s social media accounts there was some sort of countdown to a project each were involved in, primarily focused around WeDidIt team member Shlohmo.

This sort of teasing had me frequently checking for updates from each label which I assume was the countdown’s desired effect. Eventually the countdown ended to reveal the announcement of a new album from Shlohmo to arrive in April called Dark Red.

The announcement was accompanied by what presumably is the album’s first single ‘BURIED’ which can be heard above. It is as dark and murky as a good Shlohmo beat should be yet somehow seems a wee bit different. Perhaps this is True Panther’s touch as for now it isn’t 100% clear what their involvement is.

How to Dress Well and TĀLĀ - "The One"

"The One" is a collaboration between Chicago's How To Dress Well and Britain's TĀLĀ for the latest in the ‘Songs From Scratch’ series.

'Songs from Scratch is an original series from Yours Truly and Adidas Originals that documents and delivers new songs, from scratch. Each Song is the result of a curated collaboration between artists whose craft and passion inspire action'

This is perhaps one of my favourite online projects to follow and has seen some of my favourite artists link up to create amazing songs. It is responsible for one of my favourite music collaborations of the past few years, the one between R&B singer Jeremih and LA producer Shlohmo. The collaboration provided by Yours Truly then led the pair to make the incredible 6 song No More EP last year. (download here)

The second track dropped by Travis Scott last night was ‘High Fashion’ featuring Future and produced by Metro Boomin, Southside and Wondagurl

download Travis Scott's 'Owl Pharaoh' here

download Travis Scott's 'Days Before Rodeo' here

Travis Scott seemed to pop up out of nowhere back in September 2012 with production credits on the GOOD Music compilation album ‘Cruel Summer’.

The name was almost forgotten until his debut mixtape ‘Owl Pharaoh’, was released through his new record label boss and mentor T.I.’s Grand Hustle Records. This would be a mixtape to make sure his name was not soon forgotten. There include features from the likes of A$AP Ferg, 2 Chainz and even chillwave producer Toro y Moi, as well as production from himself, Kanye West, Young Chop and more. Scott credited Kanye West and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon for helping to shape the project. A lot of hands from serious big names in music on deck for the mixtape and some great standout tracks, however it seemed a bit all over the place and that Scott hadn’t quite decided what his signature style would be through the midst of all these influences.

A year later after working on projects like Kanye West’s Yeezus and Jay-Z’s Magna Carter, Travis Scott dropped his second project named ‘Days Before Rodeo’ which again was free, however not to be considered a mixtape. ‘Days Before Rodeo’ was to serve as a lead onto his actual Debut studio album which is set to be released within the next few months. Whether technically a mixtape or not, ‘Days Before Rodeo’ was one of the best records of 2014 and showcased Scott’s more refined style. 

This style is dark and murky through his use of vocal distortion and manipulation in order to compliment the beats of the same nature. His vocal play is usually then followed by him showcasing his actual lyrical ability which is often very honest and troubled giving a painful insight into his memory.

Scott’s Debut studio album is my most anticipated release of this year perhaps, so when I woke up this morning to find he’d dropped two new songs it was a bit much to handle. After spending a couple of hours letting the tracks marinate, I am confident that Scott’s album will be as epic as expected.

Ryan Hemsworth - Snow In Newark

Those that know me know i'm a big fan of this man so will let the music speak for itself. <3 

Grace Mitchell - Broken Over You (Hippie Sabotage Remix)

I first heard music by brother duo Hippie Sabotage on their production of ‘Count On Me II’ by Lucki Eck$ (an artist and track I posted about earlier in the month). Since then I’ve followed pretty much everything they’ve done which is becoming quite hard now their work-rate is so high.

As well as producing beats for a variation of rappers and singers, Hippie Sabotage are pretty hot in the remixing game and put their spin on songs from artists like Lana Del Rey, Charlie XCX and Lorde.

Above is a remix of a track from 16 year old up-and-comer Grace Mitchell from Portland. The track isn’t changed up too much, but the Hippie stamp is noticeably there.

Andy Stott - Violence

Despite being hugely passionate about various music genres, I sometimes find it quite hard to label something under a specific genre name. Not that I think anyone should really give a fuck what genre something is and instead just stick to liking what they like and not liking what they don’t.

This however does make it quite hard for me to describe artists like Andy Stott to people. I guess most places including wikipedia label him as techno or dub, but when listening to his music these aren’t really the words that come to my mind. Basically he is a hugely creative producer from Manchester who creates tracks by experimenting with instruments, field recordings, found sounds, and vocal treatments.