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uclaradio · 6 years

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“Damn Peggggyyyyyyyy!” JPEGMAFIA @ The Echo (10/18/18) // Show Review

article and photographs by Pam Gwen

I walk towards The Echo. Tonight’s event brings the 18+ crowd, so the crowd is way younger than I’m used to. The line to get in looks interminable. My stomach grumbles. My partner and I decide to head towards Two Boots Pizza. I scarf down V for Vegan (artichokes, red onions, shiitake mushrooms, sweet red pepper pesto, basil pesto, and non-dairy cheese) and Night Stripper (sun-dried tomatoes and roasted garlic and jalapeño pesto) slices and lap up the sauce left on my fingers. Stuffed and satisfied, the bouncer places a camo wristband on my wrist. I wonder if it's purposeful. Does it symbolize JPEGMAFIA’s time in the military? Or is it simply what the Echo has on hand? My semiotic analysis aside, I shimmy my way towards the front of the stage.

Swaying in front of her keyboard, Sasha Spielberg (yes, Steven Spielberg’s daughter), is on stage as her alias, Buzzy Lee. Previously in Wardell, a band she started with her brother Theo, Sasha now explores her solo career. Everyone cheers her on. She’s clad in sheer tights, red velvet ankle boots, an embroidered kimono, black velvet high-waisted shorts, and a corset adorned with random neon letters. Her perky and airy demeanor balances out Sasha’s introspective and melancholy lyrics. To her left is her guitarist (I would put his name here, but she didn’t introduce him), whose ardent strumming is in perfect concord with her every light-hearted motion.

During intermission, the crowd becomes the next performance. Lip-sync battles begin. Dance offs, literally- go off. The lights shut off. Everyone, and I mean everyone, starts yelling into the abyss. JPEGMAFIA struts on stage in dark jeans, a black hoodie with “YOU THINK YOU KNOW ME?” on the back, doc martens, and a black bandana tied on his head. An outpour of, “DAMNNNNNNN PEGGGGGYYYYYYYYYY” hollers fill the room. JPEGMAFIA stares the crowd down, and yells, “I came to do some dirty ass shit for y’all.”

Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks aka Darksinmanson aka Buttermilk Jesus aka Peggy aka JPEGMAFIA, uniquely crafts his own niche in hip-hop. Peggy takes out of pocket comments and turns them into his idiosyncratic, somber music. On his latest record, Veteran, Peggy embodies the insecure perspectives of racists and criticizes the ideals of homophobia, misogyny and sexual abuse in the military, toxic masculinity, Black identity, and the current leftist political climate. Peggy discloses his feelings of depression and how he paid for his own ticket to come to The Echo tonight. He exudes gratitude to the crowd for making tonight a sold-out show. His fans howl at him. They worship him.

Peggy is a one-man show, he DJs his own beats. He always banters with the crowd as he prepares the next track. A fan yells, “You need a DJ!” and he just shakes his head. He starts a freestyle commenting on the headassery of Donald Trump, with verses like, “When Donald Trump dies we gonna party.”

It is a ritual for Peggy to connect with his fans, not just through his music- but off stage. He stage dives.

Full of uncontrollable laughter, Peggy runs back onto the stage. He throws his undone bandana over his head. He breathes out, “Y’all exposed my hairline.”

He jumps down into the mosh pit. He makes his own mosh pit in every section possible- the left, right, center, everywhere, and anywhere.

He stage dives again. Peggy is an earthquake. Deep down in the floors of the Echo, his energy bubbles to the surface. The pounding gets stronger every second. Everything in Peggy’s surrounding shakes, convulsing into beautiful chaos. The walls shriek. Euphoria erupts everywhere. I wonder if the crowd will bury me alive, so I launch myself into the mosh pit.

I’m suddenly a hedonist, indulging in my own internalized rage- releasing it back into the earth. Sticky and painted with sweat, Peggy shakes the Echo once more. Rather than feelings of panic- you feel reborn, revitalized.

#jpegmafia #peggy #veteran #Darksinmanson #buttermilk jesus #ucla radio #concert #Concert Review #concert coverage #music

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musicletter · 3 years

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«LP» è il nuovo album del rapper e producer newyorkese Jpegmafia

★ «LP» è il nuovo album del rapper e producer newyorkese Jpegmafia

Il rapper e producer newyorkese Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks, noto come Jpegmafia, pubblica il suo quarto album in studio intitolato LP! Dopo aver esordito nel 2016 con Black Ben Carson e dato alle stampe due dischi apprezzati da pubblico e critica, Veteran del 2018 e All My Heroes Are Cornballs del 2019, il nuovo lavoro discografico è stato accolto entusiasticamente da Clash, NME e Medium a…

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#album streaming 2021 #Jpegmafia

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finallyhappy000 · 4 years

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just found out jpegmafia’s real name is Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks

motherfucker sounds like a lost member of the British royal family lmao

#jpegmafia #death grips #death grips memes

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thepermanentrainpress · 5 years

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Gallery: Jpegmafia @ Harbour Convention Centre - Vancouver, BC Date: March 22nd, 2019 Photographed by: Shane Sharma

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sinceileftyoublog · 5 years

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Live Picks: 10/29

Kishi Bashi; Photo by Max Ritter

BY JORDAN MAINZER

Two sides of hip hop, baroque pop, and a disco jam.

Sex Cells tour, Thalia Hall

Marc Almond (Soft Cell) headlines as part of the Sex Cells tour for an In The Round performance. Also performing are Andy Butler disco project Hercules and Love Affair, leather band Plack Blague, DJ Matt Pernicano, and Danny Lethal.

JPEGMAFIA, Bottom Lounge

Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks is still getting used to verified life, but he’s not retreating. On his third studio album All My Heroes Are Cornballs, a highly anticipated follow-up to 2018 breakout Veteran, rapper JPEGMAFIA doubles down on what made him stand out: darkly humorous and direct socially aware lyrics, products of an intimate knowledge of both alpha and beta toxic masculinity, combined with production that switches on a dime between aggressive and dreamy.

Peggy’s ability to put himself in various mindsets is partially responsible for his lyrical success. He sings from a female perspective on opener “Jesus Forgive Me, I Am a Thot” and “Thot Tactics”, comparing the upfront nature of sexual promiscuity to his take-no-prisoners mentality; “Your shit don't bump, you was not proactive / Sneak dissin', that is not attractive,” he explains on the latter. More difficult, he inhabits and subsequently destroys incel culture. “Shitpost, n**ga / When I die, my tombstone’s Twitter, Twitter,” he raps on “Beta Male Strategies”, referring to the various all-talk online threats he faces on a seemingly daily basis. Really, Peggy’s lamenting his appeal to these types of people. “I made rap my job, it’s sacred,” he declares on the title track, decrying white America’s inability to understand where he’s coming from. On closer “Papi I Missed You”, he’s brutally honest, rapping, “Ha, I'm a terrorist (Yeah), I don't spit raps, bitch I spit rhetoric / And I be in your kid's mind, gettin' leverage / I hate old white ni***s, I'm prejudiced (Yeah).” He’s not an alpha himself, he admits on the Helena Deland-featuring, self-reflexive “Free the Frail” (instead comparing himself to Carly Rae Jepsen), but when it comes to defeating the enemy, he’ll call upon his army training. “One shot turn Steve Bannon into Steve Hawking,” he quips in admittedly bad taste on “PRONE!”

Yet, it’s not just white supremacy that Peggy’s fighting against. It’s the whitewashing of culture in general. “They want me Kevin James, bitch, pay me like Kevin Hart,” he differentiates on “Rap Grow Old & Die x No Child Left Behind”. The “Black Brian Wilson” he labels himself elsewhere, a fitting title considering his production and curation prowess. Only half of a song is NOT produced by Peggy here, and he even goes so far as to include a “JPEGMAFIA TYPE BEAT”, alternating between pummeling drums and lilting synth lines with embedded hand claps. It takes Peggy’s self-aware black excellence--a creative and intelligent mind like his combined with his life experiences--to combine so many disparate elements into a cohesive, forward-thinking, Internet-conquering album that’s punker than most punk and bangs harder most rap.

Album score: 8.8/10

All My Heroes Are Cornballs by JPEGMAFIA

West Baltimore rapper and producer Butch Dawson opens.

Kishi Bashi, Metro

Kishi Bashi’s Omoiyari project centers around Japanese incaceration during WWII, something he was inspired to explore in the context of white supremacy rearing its ugly head yet again. There’s an upcoming documentary (due out early 2020), but for now, he’s released the music, his fourth studio album, and his best because it provides some weight to the usual indie pop preciousness to which he succumbs. Listen to any previous record of his, and you’re bound to think of the usual touchstones, Sufjan Stevens, The Shins, and Andrew Bird, and more recently, Bon Iver, Local Natives, and Darlingside. This time around, you hear those bands in the Laurel Canyon breeze of “Penny Rabbit and Summer Beat”, layered vocals and violin plucks of “Marigolds”, and whistling and cooing of “A Song For You”. But much of the album avoids spot the influence because it’s so personal.

For instance, the lush instrumentals of “Summer of ‘42″ soundtrack an improbable love story at an incarceration camp, while the sweeping cinema of “Violin Tsunami” and non-lyrical singing of “A Meal For Leaves” provide emotional heft. On the string, piano, and banjo-laden “Theme From Jerome (Forgotten Words)”, Ishibashi sings of “forgotten words from Japan”, a possible reference to the fact that Japanese literature was banned in the camps; his inclusion of Japanese in the song feels like a rekindling of heritage. Perhaps most stirring is “F Delano”. It starts out portraying a friend’s bad experience at the Delano hotel in Las Vegas but takes a turn, ultimately critical of a President heralded as a true bastion of progressive policies who nonetheless oversaw Japanese incarceration.

Yet, criticizing FDR would be too easy. “Angeline” centers around the Jim Crow practice of convict leasing, which wouldn’t be that notable of an inclusion on its own. But convict leasing was ended by FDR, and in context of “F Delano”, it reads not as Ishibashi’s attempt to upend who we think of as progressive, but his attempt to stand up for the freedom of all. Taken as a whole, Omoiyari is a truly noble effort.

Album score: 7.4/10

Atlanta pop artist Pip The Pansy opens.

Skyzoo, Promontory

Okay, this is the complete opposite of JPEGMAFIA on the rap spectrum. The decidedly old-school Skyzoo teamed up with Pete Rock last month for an album called--wait for it--Retropolitan. Pete Rock takes beats from his Illmatic sessions on “It’s All Good”. Nas’ “The World Is Yours” is sampled on Griselda crew posse cut “Eastern Conference All-Stars”. “Glorious” starts with a recording of a Miles Davis interview segueing into an old soul sample; “Eastern Conference All-Stars” ends with a snippet of MLK’s Selma speech. These are tropes well-done but well-worn.

Thankfully, as with most Skyzoo records, it’s the lyrics that cement the album’s various times and places. “You couldn’t take the Brooklyn outta me,” he declares on “Glorious” before swiftly describing life as an upwardly mobile, socially aware black man in two rhyming couplets: “Moved out of the Stuy and bought yard space / But still dressed like I'm outside ducking a car chase / Still a black fist in the air quick as a heart rate / Nikes over Yeezys, Kaepernick over Kanye.” He opens “Homegrown” with a depressingly timeless line: “I’m America’s worst nightmare, huh / I’m young, black, and too intelligent to be cared.” On “One Time”, which features an indelibly smooth vocal hook from Raheem DeVaughn, he harks back to 1997 with swiftness and simultaneous nostalgia and exhaustion. “One time we was being followed by 12 / Quoting ‘Ready to Die’ so we was probably twelve / Boys pulled us over like we had product to sell.” If the somewhat stubborn classicism of the production frustrates, it’s the clarity with which Skyzoo illustrates the social ills that continue to pervade America that provides a worthwhile connection between the past and the future. Ultimately, he and his friends keep on keepin’ on however they know how. Benny the Butcher gets rich off of selling dope on “Eastern Conference All-Stars”, even richer talking about it on rap songs. The Obama-referencing title of the final track on Retropolitan speaks for itself: “The Audacity of Dope”. Your move, Pusha T, because our elected officials certainly won’t make any to improve people’s lives.

Album score: 6.7/10

eLZhi opens (and presumably joins Skyzoo for “Eastern Conference All-Stars”, on which he, too, is featured).

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13610152128364555 · 5 years

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Top 10 Albums of 2018

It’s that time again. What a year. Thank gods we had great music for a little reflecting, some much-needed re-energizing, and of course, a lot of rabblerousing.

Here are my picks for the year’s 10 best albums. What turned your tables in 2018? Let me know at [email protected].

Happy 2019!

Rey

10) Sleep — The Sciences [Third Man Records]

San Jose psych-doom power trio Sleep have emerged from the purple haze to release “The Sciences,” their fourth studio record — their first in nearly two decades — giving stoner rock fans everywhere 53 glorious minutes of dark, dank, primordial heaviness that few if any bands can deliver. Anchored by Jason Roeder’s surgical-strike stickwork and vocalist Al Cisneros’ syrupy, sludgy, downtuned bass, master axe-smith Matt Pike plows through the kind of menacing riffs one can imagine flying off Hephaestus’ anvil as he’s forging Poseidon’s new trident — just as the god of the sea is packing his bags (and bowl) for a journey into the deep.

Listen on Spotify.

9) Mojo Juju — Native Tongue [ABC]

Born in Australia of mixed heritage — Aboriginal (Wiradjuri) and Filipino — Mojo “Juju” Ruiz de Luzuriaga, in her third full-length LP, digs deep into race, family, immigration, colonialism, identity politics and Indigenous heritage across 16 soulful, sultry, deeply personal and exquisitely original tracks that stretch across styles, genres, vibes and even languages. In a troubling era where xenophobia is on the rise, “Native Tongue” deftly explores what it means to be “the other.” “Just because you own the airtime, you think you own the sky,” she proclaims on “Think Twice,” lassoing a global Zeitgeist that is impossible to ignore — and making it far groovier than anyone thought it could be.

Listen on Spotify.

8) JPEGMAFIA — Veteran [Deathbomb Arc]

For his third studio album “Veteran” (a reference, at least, to his four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force), the 28-year-old mad-scientist glitchcore rapper/producer JPEGMAFIA (aka Barrington DeVaughn Hendricks) pulls out all the stops and then some to deliver one of the most distinctive hip-hop albums in years — if his wild and wooly aural experiments can even be considered hip-hop at this point. Vulcanic bass lines slither over shattered post-industrial beats as the New York native, now based in Baltimore, stretches his restless, inquisitive mind (he has a master’s degree in journalism), riffing on such far-ranging matters as Defense Department discharge forms and the fashionista handbags made famous by singer Jane Birkin (the one-time collaborator/lover of Serge Gainsbourg). The production is totally frikkin’ insane; the samples alone set him apart, from the bizarre epiglottal workout (a looped ODB vocal) that snakes through “Real Nega” to the brilliant rapid-fire Bic pen-clicking in “Thug Tears,” which triggered, at least in one fan, an ASMR (“autonomous sensory meridian response”), the unique auditory-tactile synaesthetic feeling of euphoria that has been used to describe a “spine-tingling” event. In fact, the whole 47-minute affair is fairly spine-tingling — and a bit bone-rattling, too. (h/t: JF)

Listen on Spotify.

7) Art Brut — Wham! Bang! Pow! Let’s Rock Out! [Alcopop!]

The Berlin- and London-based art-punk quintet comes crashing back after seven years of silence with their exuberant, hook-laden fifth studio LP, a tightly-wound 35 minutes jam-packed with gorgeously odd, party-ready, rock-steady mini-anthems with more horns, harmonies, group ah-ahs and sing-alongs than your drunken final campfire jam at band camp. Cheeky speak-singer Eddie Argos keeps things humming along with blisteringly droll deliveries of super-catchy, instant-classic lines. “I hope you’re very happy together, and if you’re not, that’s even better,“ he sniggers to an ex-lover in what could be the most gleeful break-up song ever written. In “Too Clever,” Argos distills the waggish self-reflexivity that has been his touchstone since the band emerged 14 years ago: “Sometimes the smartest man in the room would rather be outside — howling at the moon … Ah-woo!” Press play and let the bad/good times roll...

Listen on Spotify.

6) Young Jesus — The Whole Thing Is Just There [Saddle Creek]

For their third studio album, art rockers Young Jesus have crafted fresh, expansive highways and byways across the musical map. Ranging like the plains of boozy philosopher-poet bandleader John Rossiter’s Midwestern roots — and shot through with the jazz-inflected post-rock his Chicago hometown made famous — “The Whole Thing Is Just There” shows the now Los Angeles-based four-piece at their edgy-yet-dreamy, exquisitely exploratory best. Enveloped by a spacious production, Rossiter muses nimbly, often ironically, over complex arrangements interspersed by instrumental improvisations, with angular shards of guitar peppering lush soundscapes. “If saints aren’t given voice to teach of burns, we’re led to blood periphery,” he warns on the brooding, labyrinthine opener “Deterritory,” before the band opens the throttle and doesn't let up for the rest of this multifaceted 49-minute masterwork.

Listen on Spotify.

5) Daughters - You Won’t Get What You Want [Ipecac]

The hyper-intense post-grindcore noise mavens from Providence come out swinging on their fourth studio full-length (their first after an eight-year hiatus), showing that age hasn’t mellowed them out one bit. Above droning swirls of machine-edged walls of guitar, monomaniacal tank-tread basslines and call-to-battle drums, lead caterwauler Alexis S.F. Marshall lords over a gathering storm, slinging scorching, misanthropic observations of humanity’s dark side. “It may please your heart to see some shackled, wrists and throat, naked as the day they were born,” he howls on “Long Road, No Turns.” For 48 grinding, often terrifying minutes, Daughters exercise a powerful, all-consuming yet controlled cacophony — the kind of music killer hornets must listen to when they swarm. Still, there are intermittent flashes of beauty amidst the menacing Sturm und Drang of this post-apocalyptic wasteland, like one of those hornets pausing on a lonely flower, drawing a touch of sweet nectar before buzzing off for the kill.

Listen on Spotify.

4) Unknown Mortal Orchestra - IC-01 Hanoi [Jagjaguwar]

While recording their fourth full-length “Sex and Food” (also released this year) in such far-flung locales as Mexico City, Seoul, Reykjavik, Auckland and Portland, Unknown Mortal Orchestra’s Ruban Nielson (guitar, bass), his brother Kody (drums) and their father Chris (keyboards, flugelhorn, saxophone — the latter two often patched through effects) found themselves hunkered down one night in Hanoi. There the wandering New Zealand minstrels met up with Vietnamese musician Minh Nguyen (on sáo trúc, a traditional Vietnamese flute) for a casual jam at Phu Sa Studio. What emerged from that session are seven inspired tracks of sexy, smoky, brooding, propulsive Miles Davis-inspired exploratory improvisation. “IC-O1 Hanoi” may only clock in at 28 minutes, but it unfurls otherworldly mood for miles.

Listen on Spotify.

3) Jeremy Dutcher — Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa [Independent]

Toronto-based operatic tenor, pianist, composer, ethnomusicologist and Indigenous activist Jeremy Dutcher mines his First Nations roots for his striking, inspirational debut, a labor of love that is the culmination of five years researching and transcribing the traditional music of the Maliseet, an Algonquian people of New Brunswick, Quebec. “When I first got to hear these voices, that work for me was a profoundly transformational moment in my life,” he said in a CBC interview. “It was a process of deep listening — to sit there with these headphones and really hear what these voices had to tell me.” Featuring the grainy, century-old recordings of his ancestors’ songs (which he uncovered on wax cylinders at the Canadian Museum of Civilization), the endangered Wolastoqey language (spoken by around 100 people), modern sounds and rhythms, and his own penetrating, emotive voice winding through sprawling post-classical rearrangements of traditional First Nations music, “Wolastoqiyik Lintuwakonawa” (“Our Maliseet Songs”) is an ambitious, fascinating and important work — a richly deserving winner of the Polaris Prize, one of Canada’s most prestigious music awards. Dutcher says his art is rooted in “Indigenous futurism,” one aspect of which is recovering traditional languages and viewpoints to counteract the Western narrative that seeks to erase them. Celebrating ancestral voices while looking to the future in a fight for today, this is one for the ages.

Listen on Spotify.

2) King Tuff — The Other [Sub Pop]

On his dark-themed yet fun-filled fourth studio album, Vermont’s reigning king of psychedelic garage rock roams new territory, plumbing the worrisome depths of our current technology-driven, environmentally-destructive reality. Backed the impressive drumming of longtime collaborator Ty Seagall and aided by blasts of brass and sinewy synths, King Tuff (aka Kyle Thomas) rolls through crunchy, bluesy riffs, peeling back the layers of our iPhone-addled brains to reveal the poetry, nature and wilderness that we’ve lost along the way to our self-inflicted digitized annihilation. “So take me to your telescope and point me to the void, save me from the ones and zeros before it all gets destroyed,” he beseeches on “Circuits in the Sand.” If The Doors would’ve been the perfect final act to take the global stage as Armageddon rains down on Earth (“The End,” of course, being the last song we’d ever hear), King Tuff, with “The Other,” stakes a fairly convincing claim to the rabblerousing penultimate slot.

Listen on Spotify.

1) Caroline Rose — LONER [New West]

Somehow, Caroline Rose has managed to explore tough themes like sexism, misogyny, loneliness, self-doubt, infidelity and death, while delivering some of the most instant-party gems of 2018. Arch yet artful, Rose’s satire-spitting, synth-heavy third studio LP slips into seductively murky corners that burst open into dazzling technicolor skies on a dime. “I go to a friend of a friend’s party,” she deadpans on the opener. “Everyone’s well dressed with a perfect body. And they all have alternative haircuts and straight white teeth, but all I see is just more of the same thing,” The album, however, is anything but. With razor-edged turns of phrase, in-your-face punk attitude and catchy, curvilinear melodies, “LONER” certifies the Long Island songstress as a genuine pop maestro whose super-sly winks belie her 28 (!) years.

Listen on Spotify.

Honorable mentions:

Cassper Nyovest — Sweet and Short [UMG/Family Tree]

South African rapper Cassper Nyovest’s club-ready fourth studio album signals a return to his roots in kwaito (Afrikaans for “angry”), a heady mix of hip-hop and house music that originated in Johannesburg in the 1990s featuring slow tempos and African sounds, samples and slang that has grown into a potent youth culture.

Listen on Spotify.

Peter Br��tzmann and Heather Leigh — Sparrow Nights [Trost]

For their first studio album, Scotland-based improv pedal steel master Heather Leigh (whose excellent solo album “Throne” was also released this year) and German free jazz sax legend Peter Brötzmann show off the intimate, minimalist intensity they’ve developed over three years of collaboration. Probing and melancholic, “Sparrow Nights” is often rapturous, at times profound.

Listen on Spotify.

Tomáš Kačo — My Home [Independent]

On “For Chopin,” the opening track on his long-awaited debut album, 31-year-old virtuoso pianist and composer Tomáš Kačo takes the master’s lead, playing the famous Nocturne Op. 9 No. 2 (first published in 1832). But soon, the song diverges into his own expressive, jazzy strands to create not only an homage but an audacious musical conversation that stretches across the centuries. History plays a central role in “My Home,” which features some of the vibrant traditional gypsy music that Kačo’s father played for him when he was a just a young Romany pianist studying at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. A special treat: legendary bassist John Patitucci joins in for the duet “Marov.”

Listen on Spotify.

Scud + Nomex — Maschinebau EP (re-release) [Praxis]

In 1997, London techno-scuzz impresarios DJ Scud (founder of Ambush! Records) and Nomex (founder of Adverse Records) joined forces to launch the Maschinenbau label, releasing just two 7”s. Praxis had to good sense to re-release these deliriously filthy and abusive breakcore/industrial noise tracks just in time for the 21st-century robot invasion.

Listen on Bandcamp.

Ÿuma — Poussière d’ètoiles (“Stardust”) [Innacor]

In Poussière d’ètoiles (“Stardust”), Tunisian duo Ÿuma (singer Sabrine Jenhani and guitarist-singer Ramy Zoghlami) offer an intimate, minimalist blues-folk gem, sung in Arabic, that isn’t afraid to tangle with the difficult cultural politics of their homeland. In “Mestenni Ellil” (“I wait for the night”), they explore the desperation of two young lovers who can never be together due to the girl’s arranged marriage — a practice that is sadly legal and common in Tunisia.

Listen on Spotify.

#2018 #topten #music #albums

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onestowatch · 5 years

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Discover 5 Rising Stars Featured on Frank Ocean’s “Blonded RADIO”

To promote higher turn-out for the midterm elections, the often-reclusive superstar, Frank Ocean, surprised fans by airing three episodes of his show, “blonded RADIO,” on Beats 1 earlier this month. While the show is usually hosted by Vegyn and Roof Access, Ocean joined them to play some of his favorite songs of the moment and talk politics.

Some fans speculate that “blonded RADIO” was not only a great opportunity to support the midterm elections. Cryptically, Ocean teased at the beginning of the year, “If you liked 2017, you’ll love 2018,” via Tumblr. While he has released his heartbreaking remake of the Breakfast at Tiffany’s classic, “Moon River,” fans believe there is more left to his promise. Now that the year is nearly over, many wonder if “blonded RADIO” was a way to generate buzz for some forthcoming new music from Ocean.

Frank Ocean’s “blonded RADIO” show featured artists ranging from yesteryear pop juggernauts like Paul McCartney to unknown rising acts like ARTHUR, giving listeners a rare glance into Ocean’s influences. After listening to Ocean’s playlist, we have picked out five rising artists you do not want to miss.

Mk.Gee

youtube

A sort of Jack-of-all-trades, Mk.Gee is the songwriter, singer, guitarist, and producer behind all of his work. Blending psychedelia with surf rock and funk, Mk.Gee seemingly descended from artists like Mac Demarco and Tame Impala, yet has fostered his own distinct voice. The first artist featured on the “blonded RADIO” playlists, the former USC guitar major has certainly captured the attention of Ocean. With a new EP titled Fool and features on Spotify’s “Fresh Finds” and “All New Indie,” Mk.Gee is certainly an artist to watch.

Featured Song: “You”

Noname

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Chicago rapper and poet, Noname is heralded by many tastemakers as one of the best rappers in the game. With a show stopping feature on Chance the Rapper’s breakout, Acid Rap, in 2013, the young artist did not release her own music until her debut album, Telefone, nearly three years later. It was an instant indie hit and proved that some things are worth the wait. Her quiet confidence and smooth delivery has defined her as an artist in a league of her own, blazing the trail for socially conscious jazz-rap.

Featured Song: “Window” [ft. Phoelix]

ARTHUR

youtube

The smallest artist on our list, ARTHUR, is a diamond in the rough. Blending bedroom pop with glitch-y, experimental vocal effects, ARTHUR sounds like no one else. His work bleeds with a manic, untamed energy, searching for the right way to express himself. His most recent EP, Woof Woof, was written in a Bon Iver-esque period of self-imposed isolation. He lived in a cabin in the woods of Pennsylvania to focus his efforts solely on his craft. ARTHUR’s mantra is, “The best version of your reality is the one you create,” a sentiment which is certainly echoed across his work.

Featured Song: “Sweet Memory”

Tierra Whack

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Tierra Whack is on fire. In 2018, she released her debut audio/visual album, Whack World, to widespread acclaim, opened for Ms. Lauryn Hill, and played a set at Tyler, the Creator’s popular festival, Camp Flog Gnaw. What makes this rapper/singer so compelling is that she is unafraid to take risks with her art. Her debut album features fifteen one-minute masterpieces with accompanying music videos, each song giving a small taste of her potential but leaves you wanting more. Tierra Whack’s whimsical, daring flow makes her one of hip-hop’s most captivating new stars.

Featured Song: “Hookers”

JPEGMAFIA

youtube

With a sound that been likened to Death Grips and early Childish Gambino, JPEGMAFIA is an artist who’s just getting started. Known for delivering captivating music videos and high energy raps, JPEGMAFIA is the project of Barrington Devaughn Hendricks, a veteran who began producing music during his military stay in Japan. After gaining local buzz in Tokyo with his first group, Ghostpop, he returned to the U.S. to start working as the solo artist, JPEGMAFIA. The artist has gained critical acclaim in 2018 for his poignant political raps and murky, lo-fi beats.

Featured Song: “DD Form 214″

#frank ocean #listicles #jpegmafia #tierra whack #noname #arthur #mk.gee #hip hop

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