The UK’s Jay Prince has been defining and refining his unique brand of blendaline, experimental hip-hop for years. And in 2020 - picking up where his 2019 masterpiece, WONDER, left off - he’s taking more risks, and garnering more respect in the process. So far, with two 3-track iterations on a developing SOL project, he’s spent his time crafting tracks that brim with an expected rapped-sung approach in harmony with modernist production that would make top shelf pop experimentalists from Tame Impala to Toro Y Moi grin for the celebration of their aesthetic’s further inroads into the influence of particularly unique hip-hop music.

 

With VOL. 2, Jay Prince is again laying a wide-ranging foundation for his artistry. LINK UP is a moody thesis in his left-of-centre melodic leanings merging with electronic and instrumental nuance reminiscent of a more light-hearted drive down the road he paved with 2018's Beamlight. NOBODY’S BUSINESS is a fervent display of his bread-and-butter where heartwarming melody and summertime emotion breathe into an anthemic hit the likes of which he has handcrafted all his own. PATIENCE is an ambient and utterly psychedelic tipple that pays homage to not only his boundlessness, but the boundlessness being navigated by so many in music that are often given the title of rapper.

 

Together, SOL, VOL. 2 - like VOL. 1 - is an honest glimpse into the creative mind and exuberant heart that Jay Prince constantly pours into his evolving aesthetics.