Tag: A Tribe Called Quest

Lynx the Indigo Child Wades Through Modern Life’s Everyday Struggles in the Mantra-Like “Without”

Lynx the Indigo Child, photo courtesy the artist

Lynx the Indigo Child speaks for a lot of us somewhere or throughout “Without” in listing a dazzling array of misgivings, frustrations and everyday horror and despair. His expert pacing of lyrics is like an impressionistic journey through American society and culture of the past several years but really the past few decades. But the list of grievances also includes his own shortcomings in the stream of things like medical bills, social media, the fiscal cliff, misogynist media grifters like Andrew Tate, those who would aim to be our masters or gurus like his own anger building and his own outlook that can trip up getting to where you want to be in life. Yet in this flow of grievances Lynx admits vulnerabilities and very direct human needs like how he can’t do without love or respect or “this foolish doubt” that make it easier to stave off the stream of static that can bring you down. The beat in the background of his rap is like something out of what Dilla did for A Tribe Called Quest or Champion Sound—dreamlike and hypnotic in its repetition like a soulful mantra of intent as context. Paired with a song that seems to be about enduring and holding onto hope against the odds it’s a perfect companion to the lyrics. Listen to “Without” on Spotify and connect with Lynx the Indigo Child at the links below.

Lynx the Indigo Child on TikTok

Lynx the Indigo Child on Instagram

Clouds in a Headlock Deliver Downtempo, Cosmic, Psychedelic Hip-Hop With “Phantasia”

Clouds in a Headlock, photo courtesy the artists

The psychedelic and downtempo chillout beats for “Phantasia” by Clouds in a Headlock with its imaginative stream of consciousness lyrics with the project’s various MCs delivering bars as the song sits back into a transporting passages between blocks of words like getting otherworldly, free verse meditations on organic spiritual observations born of navigating a confusing world as a thoughtful person. The music video coupled with the song with a cast of characters like street mystics wandering a large urban park relocated to the edge of town is reminiscent of a fan video for a Boards of Canada song. The first rapper presented projects his face beyond his immediate body in one of the most beautifully visually disorienting parts of a particularly colorful video treatment like a long lost cable access video from a time when you could find some of the strangest and most original examples of home grown cinema around before it became accessible to anyone with a smart phone. This lends the whole experience of seeing and listening to the song an air of mystery that is often missing in modern media. But that mystery comes with an inviting energy that emanates from the figures we see and the music that’s lush and easy on the brain and gently transporting. It’s a remarkable piece of work that recalls the IDM-esque, ambient flavored works of other practitioners of psychedelic hip-hop like A Tribe Called Quest and Digable Planets. Witness the wondrous strangeness of “Phantasia” on YouTube and follow Clouds in a Headlock, flagship artists of the ŌFFKILTR circle at the links below.

Clouds in a Headlock on Instagram

Clouds in a Headlock Fat Beats lnk.to

YUNGMORPHEUS Chooses Integrity and Living According to One’s Moral Compass on “Distant Place”

“Distant Place” finds YUNGMORPHEUS dabbling into the similar realms of intuitive musical spaces that Flying Lotus dipped into in terms of the seemingly casual flow of jazz samples and tightly syncopated drums with impressionistic vocals that seem to tell the story of a guy who had to get out of realms of work and life situations that required compromising one’s integrity. It sounds like the kind of music you’d want to hear if you got off a New York subway late in the evening but not ready to go home and stumbled into a residency of a hip-hop crew that’s doing something rooted in classic style and experimentation and inspired by the likes of A Tribe Called Quest and Cannibal Ox. Listen to “Distant Place” on Spotify and follow YUNGMORPHEUS at the links below. The project’s new EP Burnished Sums dropped on November 18, 2022.