Joey Bada$$

This kid is 18 and came out of Flatbush, New York. I'm 19 coming from the outskirts of London and can't come up with a single line capable of nearing Joey's talent. But can he write a blog reaching 500 views in its first week? Probably, yeah.

Joey first came to my attention at the end of 2012 and he had a huge year 2013, remaining unsigned following in the same footsteps as the don Mac Miller and Wiz Khalifa remaining unsigned and staying paid. His 1999 mixtape reached double platinum on Datpiff and remains to constantly be releasing fire. He's been seen all over hip hop and rap, appearing on Long Live A$AP arguably killing Rocky on his own track, no mean feat.

Other than all of that, Joey is your average 18 year old who stayed in school whilst managing an emerging rapping career. You've probably heard a Joey track as he's recently been rinsed on UK Radio but if you haven't check out My Yout, where he headed back to his families home island of St Lucia to shoot this serious music video.

Enjoy.

Friday Fire

Friday Fire is as short and hot as a burning match.

Courtesy of the dons' Major Lazer teaming up with the king Pharrell comes Aerosol Can, coming soon on Major Lazer's Apocolypse Soon dropping 25th February.

Killer track.

Nick León

Nick León

Nick Leon comes from the same place as pornstar Bree Olson, Fort Lauderdale in Florida. Thats pretty much all they have in common and thats pretty much all I can tell you about Nick.

But alas such minor details, actions speak a thousand words, and in Nicks case this action is Cavern Diving. The track popped up out of a Djemba Djemba repost on Soundcloud, and the track is one of an evocative beauty. A droning, but soothing baseline is aided by the help of a soulful drum pattern that zones you out when listening to this track.

I'll let this track speak for itself, and even with an extinct vocal track over it, this riddim weighs in warmly and softly, assumedly much like Bree Olson.

Great Dane

Great Dane

Straight up Great Dane caught my eye with the collabo he was on with Mr Carmack nicely entitled 'Cocaine, with Great Dane'. The name speaks for the track itself with a mere 7 seconds of playing time before Great Dane and Carmack peer pressure you into enjoying a sound that is frankly quite nasty. But lets not get carried away with the negative connotations associated with the word nasty; I mean nasty as in it exceeds all your expectations and leaves your senses numb. Fitting.

Away from the nasties, Great Dane lives out of the Orange County, and at 23 is impressively co-founder of TeamSupreme, a music collective bringing new, independent and quite simply good music to those who want to hear it.

Great Dane's early works are heavy hitting, base inspired Hip-Hop/Trap riddims that would do damage to a club and all its paying customers. More recently however his focus's have shifted towards pushing TeamSupreme, and consequently a huge amount of independently funded artists looking to get their music heard.

Going by his real name Dane Morris, Great Dane is killing that huge emerging US talent pool via TeamSupreme and his own releases. Therefore its safe to say Great Dane is one of the finest ambassadors to riddim providing we have right now.

Salute

King Henry

King Henry 

It's hard to write about King Henry when all you can find is history of the British Monarchy, but who needs details when King Henry has just pushed out his new album XI on bandcamp. I just copped it for an ashamedly low price and its a penny well spent.

King Henry first appeared on my radar around the same time as Djemba Djemba and Mr Carmack, linking up to produce some absolute fire. The way I can describe XI is like Santa's stocking, what's inside is out of your control, its merely how much you appreciate whats under the wrapping that counts, and that is so true with XI. 

It's as if you threw all your parents records, CD's and tapes together in a simmering pot, then broke into your neighbours house, found their stash of mushrooms and cheekily, but of course purposely put them in that simmering pot. 

One of the standout tracks from the ironically labelled XI is Koomba, which I can only describe as a song that invited me to a black tie event but last minute decided to invite one of the waviest baselines on road and invited its beautifully sounding vocal amigo.

King, Henry..

Djemba Djemba's musics so hard they named him twice

Djemba Djemba

LA based Andrew Swanson aka Djemba Djemba is in the same boat as Mr Carmack and Kaytranada, a boat that is so much better than your boat right now its painful. I first clocked Djemba Djemba on this heavy remix of Banks - Fall Over, which lulled me into a piano fueled melodic drift that reminded me of early Drum and Bass. 

That sweet thought ended when that off beat baseline tore up the track and turned Fall Over into one of the biggest riddims I heard last year. The same can be said with Stahp, which is just plain silly, Djemba creates a sound that sits so well with my senses, only similar to finding £20 in the back of your jeans, you ask no questions and just enjoy that luxury. 

But Swanson doesn't just create heavy riddims, oh no. Like Carmack and Kaytranada, he straight up shows his two's up and flips over tracks like When Its Hot, when he teamed up with Penthouse Penthouse and Carmack. Similar can be said with his idyllic remix of Every Single Night by Fiona Apple. Djemba showed off his ability to switch up tempo, switch up style and absolutely switch up a tune. 

Mad Decent clocked onto Djemba Djemba pretty soon after these releases and is now not only an esteemed member of the ever growing and incredibly talented Mad Decent roster, whilst releasing under his own label Rabbit Records, but also one of the best performers at Mad Decent's famous block parties all over America and now South Africa.

What must be said to Djemba Djemba is; fairs.

The Master Jaar

The Master Jaar

Nicolas Jaar is to music as Nigella Lawson is to cooking and casual cocaine use, attractive and questionably pioneering. By no means is Jaar a cocaine using celebrity chef, but he is a pioneer in sound. Half American, half Chilean, you can't really get too many things wrong with that mix of character, but what Jaar brings to the table is ingenuity through unbelievable talent.

Imagine if musical genre's were holidays. Jaar would greet you with a smile, hand you one of the finest cocktails known to man, that he made entirely out of his own liquors, then invites you onto a private jet, takes you on a journey not to a destination, but through noise. He then serenades you with some of the sweetest essences of sound known to man. What I mean by this obscure metaphor is that when you play one of Nicolas's tracks, you may as well be in a bar in Panama, blinking, and waking up in a field of plush rhododendron's. A genre for Jaar? Forget about it.

Critically acclaimed album releases, and the well deserved BBC Essential Mix of the Year 2012 award has led to Jaar being a curveball in the music scene. Show me any two Jaar tracks that sound the same and I will personally build you a yacht capable of sailing the Atlantic ocean.

I've picked these three tracks because frankly I don't even know, I can't explain, they are the definition of riddims. My personal favourite is The Ego, a song i've searched long and hard to match in terms of the emotions it evokes, but i'll let you decide.

Shouts to Jaar, keep on doing what your doing.