2020 Project of the Year | Trinidad James and Fyre's 'Black Filter'

It’s been eight years since he dropped his debut smash hit. And though his name has emerged time and again in reprises of its original cut, in features across singles and projects big and small, in further releases of his own, and in his role hosting Complex Magazine’s Full Size Run, it’s Trinidad’s current run – one that began with the release of 2019 single, Playli$t and culminated with the release of the Project of the Year, Black Filter – that has once and for all pulled his limelight status away from the fate emblazoned upon him by his initial stardom...

The 10 2020 Projects that Defined a Truly Unique Year

2020 was a year of challenges: a pandemic, racial reckoning, protests, and isolation. But, it was also a year of response to those challenges. Music, as it always is, was there through it all – there to reflect but also to push for change and growth. The best projects of 2020 pushed boundaries musically and socially. Some even reinvented the construct of crafting an album during times of quarantined isolation. And all of the year’s best projects helped define what 2020 ultimately was – a year of coming to terms with our realities; a year of overcoming...

2020 Artist of the Year | Nashville's Brian Brown was Everywhere

In a year particularly defined by the power of staying in place and diving deep into wherever that place is, Brian Brown acted as the city’s leader from a cultural point of view. A veteran rapper with an unmistakable draw and an even more obvious fluidity with words, Brown is not only an image of what music coming from Nashville can sound like once one looks past the mirage of its country music reputation, but also a figure in the evolution of hip-hop from Nashville, from Tennessee, and from the hotbed that has always been the South...

The 10 2020 Artists Who did the Most in a Year when Most of us did Nothing

2020. What else is there to say? From an artistic standpoint, creatives had to find new ways – new ways to make their craft, new ways to reach their audience, new ways to make their points, new ways to reach one another, and new ways to make a difference. And they did. When all else seemed to fail, the artists that we look to for music, for emotional release, for love ballads, for hype anthems, and ultimately for escape, prevailed in the face of adversity. And more than ever before, the best artists of 2020...

2020 New Artist of the Year | Giveon Redefined the Expectation of R&B

There were no young artists that found themselves in more places, doing more work, with a more unique aesthetic than the emerging R&B standout. The Long Beach baritone has spoken a lot on coming to terms with his one-of-a-kind voice, and it seems as if 2020 was the year not only for Giveon to come to peace with his individuality, but to refine it to a point that made his sound one of the most prominent in music all year. Perhaps there is something in his deep-toned croons that related to the pain and longing...

The New 2020 Artists That Proved Music is as Powerful as Ever

For music in 2020, ‘new’ found new ways to exist in a year that offered more time and more pain to feel passionate about and inspired by. There were a slew of new projects and albums from young artists and veterans. There continues to be a renaissance of socially motivated music and music culture orbiting the Black Lives Matter movement. And a handful of new artists in particular left their signature as a mark of positivity for the future...

2020 Video of the Year | 'End Of Daze' Captured 2020's Whole Essence

Much of this year felt like the end of days. In a calendar fueled by a battle against the pandemic, police brutality, climate change, and ultimately a reckoning with mortality and morality, there was more than an air of apocalyptic undertone fueling the day-to-day life of just about everyone on this planet. And yet, much of the response in the good fights against the bad brought to light a failing of a daze – a lack of clarity – that so many fortunate people had been under for too long...

The Music Videos that Captured The Ups, The Downs, & The Flavor of 2020

From far and wide, even under the constraints of quarantine and social distancing, artists continued a renaissance in the music video circuit, weaving dramatic, cinematic work onto the screen to bolster and reinforce their messages and their creative breadth. From the hometown block party anthem, to the ultimate reflection on the difficulty that this year brought into all our lives, music videos provided both escape and introspection at greater depth than even the gorgeous music they source. These are the five best videos of 2020:

2020 Director of the Year | Nashville's SECK didn't Just Steal the Show

‘Music videos themselves are an art form.’

Simple words from an emerging audiovisual genius whose work is much more complex. SECK is rearranging what the future of the music video – through the macro scale of boundary-breaking hip-hop and R&B culture – will look like. And he’s doing so from Nashville...

Neeko Crowe’s Debut Runs at a Fluid Pace | ‘Every Race Is a Solo One’

It is that revolving wheel of fluid fortune that makes him such an unparalleled force even in a modern hip-hop scene that is more well-rounded than any other; that Russian roulette kind of listening session that makes Every Race Is a Solo One breathe its stamp of independence at every turn. Greater still, his ability to balance even the furthest reaches of his aesthetic under the banner of a nine-track debut album, speaks greatly to his mastery of range...

dvsn are Back with Holiday Babymaker, ‘Blessings’ Towards Upcoming Project

Anytime dvsn is dropping, it’s worth a wait and a listen. And dvsn is dropping a lot of new heat – a lot of new Blessings – starting now. With the new single, a seeming follow-up project, Amusing Her Feelings, to acclaimed 2020 album, A Muse in Her Feelings, is beginning its rollout. And that’s good news for anyone with a lot of emotion and a lot of love for R&B. The masterful Toronto duo has been steadily redefining the scene since their debut project, SEPT 5TH, was released in 2016.

Case Arnold & Friends are Crafting Timeless Sounds ‘Round Here’

A blindingly sunshiny vibe is simply the result when certain artists are in the same room – or at least on the same track. And Round Here – a single that folds the meditative wave of Case Arnold, the high tones and deep bass of Mocha, the effortless cool of Peter $un’s poetry, and the lo-fi genius of Lasik’s production – emanates of exactly that kind of sonic warmth.

An Interview with J.I. Towards the Release of New Mixtape

Sometimes an artist – especially a rapper in the ever-evolving hip-hop sphere – is able to populate two stylistic spaces at once. Young limelight in accompaniment of continued growth can allow an artist to see so many aesthetic changes across the spectrum of what is and is not hot, that their own sound becomes a unique mosaic crafted from the things they know and have known; the things that are timeless and trendy. J.I. is one of those artists – one of those rappers...

Elujay & J.Robb are a Couple ‘GEMS IN THE CORNERSTORE’ with New EP

Like a BOGO on Arizona Iced Tea; like a porno mag with the plastic already peeled off; like the clerk who knows your sweets flavor; Elujay and J.Robb are a couple of GEMS IN THE CORNERSTORE. For the silky-smooth vocalist, the project is an immersive continuation of where he left off with 2019’s acclaimed Adojio. For the widely nuanced producer, it’s the continuation of a busy year denoted by the collaborative genius that a new kind of collective, Play Nice.

Kojey Radical is Ending 2020 on a ‘Good’ Note with Positivist Single

Good is more than tasteful and stylish, but envelope pushing in its inadherence to preconceived – pre-Kojey – possibilities in music. A fluidly dynamic exhibition of so many of his creative offerings, the single, albeit wide-ranging in its gatherings from his sung, rapped, poetic roots, is remarkably listenable and undeniably anthemic – another theme consistent across his mosaic canon.

Rhythm & Baritone Vocalist, Kwaku Asante Returns with Single ‘4 Free’

A year removed from his extremely well-titled debut project, honeycomb, the sticky sweet soul of Kwaku Asante is still dynamically redressing the possibilities of and Neo-Soul in 2020. The bold rhythm & baritone vocalist effortlessly pieces together anthemic, transcendent jams for modern Giveon fans that also find themselves returning to the aesthetic of 90’s Seal. Somewhere in the middle lies Kwaku’s sweet spot.

KAYTRANADA Releases Yakuza Inspired Visuals for ‘Look Easy’

Never without his surprises, KAYTRANADA returns to the screen with his Yakuza-style inspired set of visuals for Summer smash, Look Easy, featuring Lucky Daye. The Montreal tropical house overlord, on the heels of a trio of Grammy nominations, does what he always does: takes everything in a new direction. If at first, Look Easy doesn’t feel like a music video, that’s by design.

Greentea Peng is Spellbinding with Atmospheric New Single

Spells comes at the tail end of a 2020 that has seen a barrage of introspective Greentea Prng singles breathing especially pure in air defined by a particularly introverted year. Her music boasts in immersive sort of identity that can’t really be replicated, and Spells is another exhibition of that mystère. A minimal keystroke beat brimming with explorative ambient chimes sets the stage for Peng to cut in and out of tonal hums and vibrant lyricism.

Brian Brown Drops a Lil Sum’n for the Go Getters with ‘OnlyFans’

With a voice designed to tell stories, Brian Brown has emerged as Tennessee hip-hop’s draw-driven Dr. Seuss. And with his new single, he proves that no subject matter is off limits, and that with only a SoundCloud account, a listener can obtain access to the workings of his mind in the way one can only otherwise obtain access to other things via OnlyFans. Overtop a mellow Sir Illington beat, Brown belays ‘a lil sum’n sum’n for da go getters.’ The results? A money-making jam celebrating the income for anyone hustling for it.

The UK’s JVCK JAMES is Doing Nobody ‘Favours’ with Moody New Single

Over a gloomy beat built on booming bass, JVCK JAMES delivers a flow of bars and humming melody that delivers over and over again that he’s doing no one any Favours anymore. Just in time for winter and the lack of light that comes with it, JVCK JAMES holds steadfast in his delivery of anthems to feel something to, albeit Favours is certainly taken in a new direction.

Jordan Xx & Brian Brown are Confectionary with ‘BEN AND JERRY’

If two voices have emerged to define Nashville this year, JORDAN Xx and Brian Brown are likely candidates for the position. Their signatures draws, lyrical endowment, and utterly laid-back sonic demeanors define what it is to be part of the city’s illustrious emerging scene. With the BEN AND JERRY freestyle, their effortless knack for wielding tracks that are I end I fly listenable is on full display.

Jay Prince Continues ’SOL’ with Psychedelic 2nd Volume

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.

'Since You Asked,' Jxdece's Debut is Melodic Poetry for any Season

It’s rare that a project can touch a listener at every point of their emotional spectrum. It’s rarer still that project is an artist’s debut, but nothing about Jxdece’s SYA brims with the mark of a novice, an amateur, or anyone poised to present their first work to the world. His strongest moments – and really all of SYA – come when he’s knee-deep in sentiment while pushing through the pain to deliver his evocative lyricism. It’s here that any fan of hip-hop, R&B, spoken word, and the ambient cool that underlines SYA’s entirety feels at home

Reaux Marquez is Nobody's Decoy as EP Reintroduces Lyrical Dynamism

With the meditative dynamism of Reaux Marquez and all the words that come in tow with his artistry, another name – a particularly key name at that – is, too, lending his unique talent to an ever-evolving Nashville scene poised to take over hip-hop, R&B, and the grey areas of culture that orbit both spheres. With NO DECOYS: a project defined by the grey areas floating between so many established sounds, Reaux Marquez is fooling no one – is no one’s decoy...

'While The World Was Burning,' SAINt JHN Pieced a New Collection Together

Nothing like fucking around and ending up with a collection. But, a happy accident, by way of SAINt JHN, is nothing if not an homage to his grind. Love him or love him, the transcendent Brooklyn artist quickly turned hip-hop sex god keeps his immaculate figure by refusing to take a moment off – continues rolling out his immaculate art by doing the same no matter what else is going on around him. And that included, as he so relatably puts it, While The World Was Burning...

'F*@k It,' Bari's New Album Burns Down Preconceptions of Hip-Hop's Future

In the wake of last month’s full-length delivery, Layer Cake, Bari is continuing to pace a path that none before him have so effortlessly navigated, sake for the renowned producers who have walked alongside him on this journey: VZN, Blake Wright, Monte Booker, Alley Knock, Niko the Great. Together, they’ve crafted a blueprint on how to create hip-hop for future generations living in faraway galaxies. Together, they’re burning it all down. Its title speaks directly to the corrosive acidity with which Bari’s music dissolves existing conceptions of hip-hop.

An Interview with K CAMP on what 'KISS 5' Means to Hip-Hop Evolution

Looking back a decade on the Atlanta hip-hop scene is like looking back a century on the changes that other cultural renaissances through history have seen. A paramount collective of artistry from the ever-evolving mecca of the South is nothing new, but the sounds currently reaching a global audience by way of the newcomers and veterans who alike call home to the ATL, is, boasting perhaps the widest scope not only in all of music today, but arguably one of the rangiest through music’s history...

Femdot’s Flow is Unfounded with New A-Side / B-Side Featuring Saba

There’s a lot to say – more importantly a lot to listen to – when it comes to Chicago’s Femdot. Hip-hop’s most unique flow and one of its most experimental forces, he’s back in action a year removed from dynamic EP, 94 Camry Music, and doing so with an A-Side / B-Side that also features a joint with another of hip-hop’s most underrated lyricists, Saba.For their collective part, Lifetime is an expectedly hard-hitting and poetic bout that succeeds every bit as much in its position as a vibrantly ubiquitous exploration of hip-hop melody...

The BlackSon is Back & ‘Black Flag’ is a Must-Listen for Any Lyrical Fan

One of the Nashville’s scenes most elusive names is also one of its most its most illustrative lyricists. The BlackSon is back, and Black Flag is a must-listen for any hip-hop head looking towards where the future of dynamic penmanship meets the anthemic rap hit. The single is both of those things. Brimming with quick-cadenced, hard-hitting verse and a hook that boasts of the same description, albeit with the kind of repetition and head-nodding nature that finds a banger permanent space in a listener’s memory bank...

L.A. VanGogh Changes Form, as ’Shpeshftr’ takes Place, What’s Next?

Chicago’s L.A. VanGogh is a rapper. But he’s also a lot more: a songwriter, a vocalist, a producer. An all-around shpeshftr, he’s a creative mosaic whose singular form has now seemed to outgrow itself. And from that understanding of his boundless artistry, starts to make sense his unfolding project, shpeshftr vol. 1: Force of Gravity. Through it, in once-a-week varietals, VanGogh is releasing audiovisuals conceptions of various artistic styles portrayed by different characters...

Bobby Earth & Allen Love are Button | ‘Rumble Pack’ is an Indefinable Mosaic

Eclectic and enigmatic. Both adjectives have long described Houston experimentalist and producer, Bobby Earth whose newest collaborative project with Atlanta-based bassist, Allen Love goes by the name, Button; whose collective release is titled Rumble Pack. Naturally, eclecticism and enigma run rampant through the meandering six-track EP, brimming with staple Love basslines and hip-hop and R&B oriented Earthly flow...

Regardles How You Feel, ‘if You Feel,’ You’ll Feel Xavier Omär’s New Album

Through if You Feel, there is seemingly no R&B or R&B-adjacent lane – no R&B era – that Xavier Omär doesn’t touch. More than an artist, but clearly a deep-seeded student of music, he meanders wildly through epoch and stylistic evolution without ever losing way. Regardless whether you feel good or bad, high or low, social or introspective – if You Feel, then you’ll find something – somethings – to feel strongly about throughout Xavier Omär’s 2020 masterpiece...

Bryant Taylorr Redefines the Indefinable with ‘RARE’ Exhibition 

Within a space melodically inclined yet fluidly straddling the classic R&B tenants of modern names like BJ the Chicago Kid and the hip-hop rooted crooning flow of transcendent forces like Miguel and SAINt JHN, Bryant Taylorr creates something altogether new. Amalgamate as his first collection since 2017 debut, Juice, his newest, RARE provides a glimpse from a different angle than the one we overarchingly have of Nashville...

Nashville’s $avvy Returns with Expectedly Fun Single, ‘Zoom’

From Nashville and the exuberant figure that brought us prior 2020 hi-fi hit, Bag/Purse, comes another character-ridden jam, Zoom. With an E-40 or Larry June-esque knack for stamping punchlines with hard-hitting hilarity, $avvy is an irreplicable name on a local scene quickly turning global. For its part in particular, Zoom is dynamic. Seeing $avvy cut an addicting hook is signature to his aesthetic, but his lyrical prowess and clever bouts of flow are the letter that always drive meaning and deeper legitimacy to his name.

Neeko Crowe Embodies Effortlessness with Single, ‘Kill!’

Kill! is his latest single in a harrowing string of releases so far in 2020, and akin to everything he’s put out into the streaming world, it embodies effortlessness, even while so much effort surely went into its craft. Built on a foundation of silky guitar chords, Neeko Crowe opens with its hook – a delicate, immersive melody that puts both his clever flow and his silky vocals on display. And as soon as it began, Kill!’s chorus transitions into a hypnotic verse of lyrically endowed, dynamically cadenced introspection circling self-assurance in his gift.

10 Reasons Why Omar Apollo is One of the Most Stylish People Alive

The young, indefinable, post-genre artiste exhibits the unending range of his style through his music and through his fashion. From oversized suits and snakeskin boots, to bleached blue hair and an unparalled knack for foraged denim, everything about Omar Apollo's image points towards the inevtiable future of his position as one of music's brightest and most important names. Here, we look into what it is that makes Omar Apollo one of the most stylish people alive.

How a Communal Tennessee Project could Ignite a New Mixtape Era

There’s so much intrigue in the eclectic, and there’s so much eclecticism in Tennessee. The three – the cultural mosaic, the subsequent innovation, and the state they come from – are permanently intertwined. And in no space is that more defined than in music. At our current moment, a hip-hop centric underground orbiting Nashville, Chattanooga, and longstanding Southern hub, Memphis, is fueling a confluence of creativity grounded in the wide-ranging patchwork of the Volunteer State.

Alxndr London's 'III META' is a Futurist Exploration of 2020 Emotion

The long, painfully emotional road for a collection only three tracks in length is Alxndr London’s boldest, most experimental to date. And for that – for the same reason we have always been so entranced by his futurist exploration – Alxndr London with III META continues to prove music, art, and maybe the human artist have no limits other than the raw constraint of emotionality.

An Interview with Nashville Rapper, Brian Brown

There is no talking Nashville hip-hop without talking Brian Brown. The charismatic, one-of-a-kind rapper has spent years building two foundations - that of his own sound, and of the greater, rising Tennessee scene - all the while doing what his city has done best in order to build up one another: collaborate and support. His 2020 album, Journey, has been a keymark moment to the emerging Nashville creative scene, earning not only a whole lot of local love, but also a whole lot of critical acclaim and mainstream limelight.

Ron Obasi's 'Sun Tapes' Orbits Rap's Lyrical Past, Sets Tone for its Future

Obasi, a rasp-ridden, lyrically endowed poet, handily crafting effortless bars overtop expectedly Nashville beats brimming with undertones and overtones of saxophone led jazz, thrives not only in his role interviewing guest samples on what the Sun represents to them, but also in answering his own question with adjectives that too, can be applied to his sound, and his new Sun Tapes project. Light. Strength. Longevity.

Jay Prince's New A-Side / B-Side Infuses Meaning into his Range

Prolific this year not only by the number of singles he’s released, but by the sheer scale in their stylistic push, the UK’s Jay Prince is yet again onto something(s) new. With an A-Side / B-Side going by the name of SOL, VOL.1, he’s again entrenched his aesthetic in the transcendent grey areas between the hyper-lyrical and the silky-smooth melodic.

Kojey Radical's Progressions Continues to Foment w/ Freestyle

The UK rapper shines as one of the most lyrically pervasive artists alive, equally daunting with his skills as a vocalist, a choreographer, and a designer. But throw that out the window for now. The second installment of his PROGRESSION FREESTYLE goes back to the first line of this writeup – back to Kojey’s poetically founded roots – back to the simple truth that rapping as Kojey raps is not simple to any lyricist but himself.

Cam O'bi Recruits Snoh Aalegra & Rejjie Snow for Bubbly 'Mirrors'

Towards his debut album, Grown Ass Kid, expected – to say the least – soon, he’s been dropping a slurry of singles with artists of all sounds and styles. And his latest is Mirrors, which folds in the sonic silk of Snoh Allegra and longtime friend, collaborator, and one-of-a-kind wordsmith, Rejjie Snow. Overtop a playful, bubbly Cam O’bi beat, Snoh Allegra and Rejjie Snow are persuaded into playfulness of their own, and the outcome is expectedly unique.

With One of R&B's Most Unique Voices, Kaleem Taylor's New EP Proves Pen

The floaty, underwater synth strokes that open 'She Knows' pull a listener on equal footing with the oft-atmospheric Kaleem Taylor; drown willing ears in emotion sourced equal parts from a God-given register and a learned, experientially grounded pen.Always playing within the realm of its established muted piano keys and bass-heavy modernist production at large, Kaleem’s voice proves to be the force for the exuberant explosiveness driving the meandering direction of the project’s overarching emotionality.

Omar Apollo's 'Apolonio' Liquifies Genre, Race & Sex in Music

Omar Apollo’s Apolonio earns its proper debut stature as an open book dissecting the artist himself. A LatinX son of immigrants from rural Indiana, drawn to the all-encompassing fluidity of music and dance’s expression; driven, too, by the indefinability of music’s wide range, Omar Apollo is relating with an audience through so many points – sexuality, race, and genre, especially – that ultimately are the same thing – and ultimately, find their anthem in Apolonio that defies their existence, or at least their need for definition, at every turn.

Malik Elijah's 'Free Lemonade' Mixtape is an Exhibition of Hip-Hop Fluidity

From the lyrically prominent position from where its roots draw water, the changes in pace – the stylistic pivots of direction – from Free Lemonade’s beginning notes to its final breaths, may at first feel jarring. But when one realizes that Malik Elijah, a Maryland rapper musically founded in church choirs as a youngin’, is as wide ranging as he puts on exhibition throughout the project, the differentiation feels more like progression. Free Lemonade after all, need only be fluid.

An Interview with Maryland Rapper, Malik Elijah Towards New Tape

Maryland’s Malik Elijah is an up-and-comer whose range and above all else, passion, drive uniqueness into his music. En route towards the release of new project, Free Lemonade, he began with a fiery, socially-motivated audiovisual called Human. Born from the ash of a Summer especially defined by continued protests in the wake of the tragic killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and so many more, Human set a tone of meaning in Elijah’s work - meaning that, too, drove vibrant musicianship.

Sy Ari Da Kid Drops Wide-Ranging Mixtape, '3 To 5 Business Days'

In the wake of one of 2020’s most surprising projects, A Toxic Heartbreak, Atlanta’s oft-indefinable Sy Ari Da Kid is back on his wave with another emotion and melody strewn collection. 3 To 5 Business Days comes as a further exploration of a vocally dominated direction that he’s been driving with recent drops. But, instead of fervently adhering to the melody like he did with A Toxic Heartbreak, the new project is a more wide-ranging, all-encompassing glimpse into his larger artistry.

Toronto's Terrell Morris Blooms with Transcendence Through 'Lavender' 

The Lavender aesthetic is broad and relatively unpredictable. It floats between two different pillars rooted in one another but does so without ever committing to the tenets of jazz or hip-hop’s history. Instead, it’s a liquid look into Terrell Morris’ individuality – one that founded in jazz and hip-hop, but sources too from everything else that modern jazz and hip-hop touch. Essentially, what we’re saying is that Lavender is an exploration of it all.

365 Days Since 'iNDigo Café,' Chuck Indigo Refines with 'No Moor Bad Days'

365 days removed from the illustrative immersion that was iNDigo Café – a project that helped snowball the greater Nashville scene towards a tumbling of masterpieces in its 2020 wake – Chuck Indigo returns with No Moor Bad Days. Stylistically, productively, lyrically, vocally, it’s a further refinement from one of hip-hop’s most transcendentally melodic up-and-comers, while it’s also a refinement in all the same ways for a young Nashville scene that continues to close the conversation about which creative locale has had the largest impact this year.