The Summer In Music — Heather Cox

This Summer has been a bonanza of new releases, breakout collabs, and concert announcements.

The end of May, turned out GIRIBOY’s EDM offering, and RM’s latest release ‘Right Place, Wrong Person.’ A week later Chillin Homie’s album ‘Maze Runner’ followed on the same day as the Summer mega pop-bop ‘Work’ by ATEEZ.

All three of these albums were unique experiments with different styles by the respective artists. GIRIBOY’s ‘GRB01’ which was more of an EP than an album, had a shit-ton of gravitas, and felt very important, demanding your attention and holding it.

While I feel like I got to know Mokyo a lot better through R.P.W.P., I didn’t really connect to RM’s vision, and truly found it to be a tad pretentious. I enjoyed his synthesis of Balming Tiger’s influence, whom he clearly adores, throughout the album, most notably in ‘Domodachi (feat. Lil Simz)’ but RM never really captures their innate sincerity, in spite of having San Yawn’s fingerprints all over the album.

RM pensively considering why balance is so elusive…

Chillin Homie on the other hand, dependably delivered, with his first studio album, ‘Maze Runner.’ ChillHo’s always surprising, and evolving, and this album was a big risk. Stacking influences from UK Hip Hop and Drill, marrying playful tones and flow, mostly in English with eerie, high-pitched synths - a method he used just as successfully in ‘Group 8’ brilliantly reproduced here, most notably with ‘GTS feat. 노윤하.’ ‘Fengshui’ reunites CH with Octavian from ‘Christian Dior,’ and it’s about time. ChillHo’s voice- dangerous, smooth and smokey -is like drinking mescal out of chipped glass, but when combined with Octavian’s dry drawl, the two pull off a tongue-in-cheek swagginess second to none. It wouldn’t be a Chilling Homie album without a feature from spitfire staccato BLASÉ, and ‘BARO’ is it. ‘So Damaged feat. Absent Markey’ proves that putting in the hard work doesn’t necessarily make it grim. Thoroughly unique offering from a criminally underrated artist.

The perennially hardworking and innovative Chillin Homie.

June gave up solid new releases from Epik High, Megan Thee Stallion, $uicideboy$, DPR IAN, No:el, and Kaytranada. Among the June standouts, The Quiett’s new album ‘Luxury Flow’ definitely fits just right. Q, back to the basics, rapping over soul samples, is a vibe that can’t be duplicated, and one that’s been missed. CHANGMO spits pure fire joining Q on ‘UGRS,’ while ‘Visionaire’ embodies the timeless smooth hiphop sound, accompanied by jazz piano shows The Quiett’s ageless ability to make deliberate decisions for effortless style.

Peggy Gou’s ‘I Hear You’ was a smart album. Playing with ‘90s Ibiza dance sounds, swinging from perky to melancholy exotica Eurohaus, the whole album is a fea, and creates a beautiful mystery from every angle.

Khouse giant and multi-instrumentalist Peggy Gou.

Failing the assignment this June was Cigarettes After Sex with their album ‘X’s',’ which sounds like a CAS cover band. Lyrically, the album plunges into some vulnerable and troubling places, but musically it lacks any similar emotional range, instead feeling stagnant and one-note.

July gave us a handful of notable bangers include Xie Di’s ‘Community Life 2’ (谢帝 – 社区生活2) and Kid Milli’s ‘Do What Moves You’ which lowkey sounds like a Coogie song. SUMIN and Slom reunite for ‘MINISERIES 2,’ which is a solid follow-up to ‘MINISERIES.’ The cheerful bossa-nova tunes, as well as the cleanly produced indie-pop tracks gives inspired Summer sound, and is the real highlight of the month. Groovyroom batted 500 on their way out of H1GHR with ‘IG,’ which was fly, but ‘Fasho’ left us dry. More about Groovyroom in my related post ‘Who’s Repping Khiphop?.’

SUMIN and Slom reunite for ‘MINISERIES 2’

BEENZINO announced on his Instagram that he and Stefanie are expecting a baby. A little over a month later, Ash Island announced that not only that he and Changmina have married, but they are also expecting their first child. Best wishes to both couples.

And finally, L.A. holds its breath in anticipation of the line-up for the first ever U.S. Waterbomb Festival. I’m hoping for a Khiphop heavy bill, with a nominal amount Kpop artists, designed to feature the genre to foreign audiences. If the festival adheres to the Korean model, it will be historic. I desperately hope the event does not end up being a 21+ event. Not only does this exclude a huge portion of artists’ fan base, it obliges the event to degrade into a drunken free-for-all, which would take all of the fun out of it, and make a shit impression on promoters for future events.