#le1f

(Disclaimer: underappreciated is a subjective personal opinion, and in this case means 'talented and crowd-pleasing enough that they should be on the radio, but, where I live, they aren't.')

Tricky (Adrian Thaws): 1985 - Present

You might recognize Tricky as being a previous member of Massive Attack, a very well-regarded British band that is probably best-known in America for... 'Teardrop', the intro song for House? I'm guessing.

If you're a Fifth Element fan you might also recognize Tricky himself as the ill-fated henchman:

But we're not here to talk about his short-lived acting career. (Although apparently he drove Gary Oldman insane when they had scenes together, and I kind of love him for that.) Tricky is an incredibly prolific musician from the Bristol area who has put out fourteen records. They can broadly be categorized under something like 'trip-hop', sometimes less trip-hop and more electronica, sometimes neither. I watched a recent interview where someone commented that none of his albums really sound the same, but they all sound distinctly like him, which I think is a well-earned compliment. His vocals are gravelly and distinct, but Sun Down and Hell is Round the Corner (one of my favorites) don't sound like Puppy Toy (above). Broken Homes is slow and aching, where Tricky Kid is a rap anthem with well-metered, intriguing lyrics that utilize his songwriting skills in a completely different way. I'm not a music critic and I don't have the skills to completely explain why I've been hooked on his stuff since I was a teenager. The one thing that's pretty consistent is that he likes to pair his vocals with female guest vocalists', contrasting his deep, often low-energy style with softer, feminine singing. This brings me to Martina Topley-Bird.

Martina Topley-Bird: 1993 - Present

Tricky discovered Martina Topley-Bird when she was singing on the street. From there she became one of his most celebrated and long-running vocalists on tour and his albums, finally breaking off on her own and coming out with her own Quixotic in 1993.

She's also from the Bristol area and has a lot of trip-hoppy, indie influences that make her genre hard to pin down. Like Tricky, her songs range a lot in energy levels, but her vocal and lyrical styles are consistent.

She doesn't have nearly the discography backlog, but I encourage you to see what she has out and what collabs she's done. She has the benefit of a very unique, whispery-smooth kind of voice that can beautifully transition between spoken word and traditional singing. Make sure you check out Baby Blue.

Saul Williams: - 1995? - Present

This is actually just a trick to get you to watch some slam poetry. I tricked you. Here it is:

Okay, okay, we're coming back to 'music' music. But to understand where Saul Williams's music career comes from, you absolutely must understand that Saul Williams is, primarily, one of the most prolific slam poets in New York or really, anywhere in the world. His slam poetry is extremely musical and his music is extremely poetic, it's intertwined, it's difficult to completely separate, it's probably pointless to try. The Noise Came From Here, a song about police shootings, strikes me as one of his most 'produced' and 'musical' songs, but it also directly includes a poem by Williams and another by Marcellus Buckley within said song.

Saul Williams's themes include a great deal of Blackness, anti-war and anti-racist politics, and the spiritual nature of identity. His discography is also pretty limited but if you get into his poetry, congratulations, he's fucking prolific and YouTube has tons of grainy videos of him tearing the house down.

Le1f (Khalif Diouf): 2008 - Present

Le1f was originally a producer, and if you've heard Das Racist's Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell, then you're already familiar with the pop rap, ear-wormy vibe. Where I go to Brockhampton for my unapologetically gay rap that has a grungy, filmed-in-the-parking-lot sort of feel to it, Le1f is more of a singular-face, in-studio vibe. The videos are consistently well-styled and have some familiar faces here and there. (Check out Spa Day if you want to see Das Racist taking a self-care break.) There's a lot of polish on the the tracks and the videos.

A lot of my other recommendations have been slower and potentially bummers. Le1f sings about pretty light topics, often gay culture, and is not taking anything too seriously. You can duckwalk to this.

Stromae (Paul Van Haver): 2000 - Present

Stromae, a Belgian-born French singer, started out with some generic 'work is exhausting, let's party' bops that made it on to the radio. As he got more clout and developed his creative team, his work steadily got more politically vocal and uniquely stylized. Stromae plays a lot with themes of gender and sexuality, probably best illustrated in Tous Le Memes (below) for the folks like me who either put on English subtitles or have to guess at what's being sung about:

Stromae is enjoying a lot of success in Europe, and he's sung at least once on American late-night, but afaik he's still not well-known in America. I recommend ave cesaria for an upbeat ear-worm, or Popaoutai if you want an ear-worm that makes you feel bummed out about absent fathers. I think Fils de joie, which is about a fictional country holding a funeral for a missing sex worker, gives a solid impression of where Stromae is going with his art now that his success has increased his budget and his reach. We're going to continue making bops, we're going to continue to discuss difficult topics, we're continuing to put a spotlight on the marginalized, we're wearing weird hair pieces to invoke the feeling of an invented culture.

...

Okay. Writing about art is hard. I think I'm done.