Brent Faiyaz | “Unfastened Change”
In 2020, 26-year-old breakout R&B star Brent Faiyaz, initially from Maryland, was pulled into ATL’s orbit by the individual he was courting on the time. And it was right here, out of that yr’s tumultuous cacophony, that he wrote this explicit track. Punctuated by a pulsating metallic sound impact harking back to “Cry Little Sister” from the ‘80s vampire flick The Misplaced Boys, Faiyaz croons his method by an existential disaster about fame.
It’s a part of a provocative new album, Wasteland, which builds on the momentum of his 2020 EP F**ok the World. The gathering of songs boasts collaborations with Alicia Keys and Raphael Saadiq, and it debuted earlier this month at #2 on the charts. Maybe that instantaneous success was helped by an attention-grabbing, tongue-in-cheek advertising marketing campaign throughout most main cities with billboards that state: “I want to apologize upfront for the individual I’m gonna turn into as soon as this album drops.”
In fact, the tidal wave of curiosity was additionally bolstered by his hypnotic vocals and a present for scintillating cynicism. Chances are high, he’ll be again to this city, too. In any case, he has cited Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds as a dream future collaborator. That’s a matchup we’d one hundred pc line as much as see.
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Uzuhan | “Residence (Sic)”
Hip-hop artist James Han, aka Uzuhan, was first hooked throughout the ‘90s and early aughts by rap’s capability to inform highly effective tales. Quickly he discovered himself listening intently to a few of that period’s strongest flavors of circulation: Nas, Eminem, A Tribe Known as Quest, Lauryn Hill. After attending the College of Maryland, School Park, with a level in graphic design, he made his method all the way down to Atlanta, the place he’s constructed up a retailer of verses steeped in historical past, self-awareness and a way of place.
The son of Korean immigrants, Uzuhan advised information web site The Kraze that the rise of Okay-Pop, although not his style, has been useful in some methods, particularly since many individuals he encounters “aren’t used to seeing a Korean man rap, you recognize, they could have a couple of examples right here and there, however I’m nonetheless roughly a novelty. Not even in a imply method; it’s simply what it’s. So, with Korean music turning into such a worldwide phenomenon, I believe it permits individuals to know the nuance of who I’m and actually take heed to my artwork.”
On Could 27, he launched his newest album, Buford Freeway, which he describes as “the tensions of a Korean American man cursed with an insatiable need to always reinvent himself.” This video reunites Uzuhan with longtime collaborator Sam Ock.
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Soul Miner’s Daughter | “Story of Your Bones”
It’s unclear when precisely this Peachtree Morning clip aired. Nonetheless, it might have been earlier than Jennifer Nettles struck out on her personal in 1999 along with her self-titled band — for which she would remake and revive this track with goosebump-inducing preparations of string and percussion to make her voice strike the guts. However what’s clear right here is that, even sitting on an uncomfortable stool beneath the awkward shiny lights of morning information tv, she’s solely in a distinct singing stratosphere on this, our Classic Monitor of the Week.
Although eclipsed by Nettles’ later work with Sugarland after which solo, Soul Miner’s Daughter left a small however mighty imprint throughout the band’s three years collectively. Proper out of faculty, Nettles, a graduate of Agnes Scott, and Cory Jones, a graduate of the College of Georgia, started choosing up acoustic indie gigs round Atlanta and Athens. In case you have been a frequenter of Eddie’s Attic throughout that point, you’d have seen their pared down however nonetheless electrifying stay reveals (take heed to the stay recording of “Our bodies” from their album The Sacred and the Profane; it’s fairly saucy).
They carried out at Lilith Honest and made two albums, after which it was kaput. Unusually sufficient, it’s nearly not possible to seek out any data on-line about what occurred to Jones post-split. However for Nettles, effectively, in 2004, she shaped Sugarland with fellow Atlanta singer/songwriters Kristian Bush and Kristen Corridor, turning their sound into slick, scrubbed nation music that also had some soul to it.
After which she simply saved climbing. Grammy Awards. A Kennedy Heart tribute to Bruce Springsteen the place the Boss nods approvingly. The Righteous Gem stones on HBO. Waitress on Broadway. Reportedly, considered one of Nettles’ new tasks is writing the rating for a brand new musical about Giulia Tofana — a bona fide skilled poisoner from seventeenth century Italy. Um, excuse us, however this drink appears to be laced with badass.
