Doechii stakes her claim with stunning mixtape
Doechii’s mixtape is absolute fire and she is gonna become one of the best.
Let’s first start with hip-hop.
In some ways it’s been a fantastic summer for hip-hop culture. The Kendrick v Drake beef helped reignite some of the best aspects of the artform, and Kendrick’s releases in particular crossed over into the mainstream in a big way.
There are brass bands playing ‘Not Like Us’, which has remained a permanent chart fixture in a summer where much of the mainstream crossover anthems were fairly lame. Eminem and Tommy Richman have their role to play in the world, but if you even take a cursory look at the biggest tracks in the world in 2024, they are some of the few names you’ll find alongside Kendrick. None of their new music comes near him.
Thankfully, Kendrick not only saved the day but he also helped inject more life into the West Coast, which has once again ruled rap in 2024. It may not quite have reached the era of ‘The Chronic’ quite yet, but West Coast rap is enjoying a huge renaissance in both popularity and profile.
In truth, it never went away. But in 2024, it was more than ‘Not Like Us’ that saw people turning attention to the West.
DJ Mustard, Vince Staples, YG, Schoolboy Q, Gmoney DT, and many others came correct, while the influence of Drakeo the Ruler and Nipsey Hussle continues.
Underground OG’s such as Dam-Funk continue to make amazing music, while high-profile legends such as Dre and Snoop help unite rap fans of all eras.
The knock-on effect of this West Coast surge has also helped propel one of the best rap releases of the year by a non-West Coast artist into a bigger stratosphere. The young Tampa rapper and singer has just dropped the stunning ‘Alligator Bites Never Heal’ on Top Dawg Entertainment, the California label that helped bring the world Kendrick, Sza, Ab-Soul, Jay Rock, and Schoolboy Q.
Doechii’s mixtape is absolute fire and she is gonna become one of the best-known artists of her generation. Elsewhere, the girls continue to hold it down in the commercial rap marketplace, and Glorilla, Latto, Ice Spice, Megan, Sexyy Red, Doja Cat and others are all dropping bangers.
Elsewhere, old favourites like A$AP Rocky have returned with the catchy ‘Tailor Swif’, while Kanye delivered another much-hyped but slightly disappointing ‘Vultures 2’.
As always with this new era Kanye, there are some great ideas married to some fairly pedestrian ones, but there remains the hope that he still has a few classics in him. Much of this week’s rap hype has surrounded the streaming of his old Days Before Rodeo album. Juicy J has released a stunning jazz influenced album called Ravenite Social Club, and this is one of my personal favourites in 2024.
Closer to home, Kneecap have released their massively popular debut album, while Jordan Adetunji has gone viral globally with ‘Kehlani’, which found the singer jumping on the remix.
Aby Coulibaly has just spent the weekend warming up for Coldplay in front of thousands, backed by BrickNasty, while Curtisy, Kojaque, JyellowL and others continue to make waves. In Britain, Central Cee remains the big commercial top dog while Nemzzz, Pozer, Tion Wayne, AJ Tracey, and others remain important.
I won’t get around to doing much dance music this week, but lots of the best underground music remains in the genres of jersey club, baltimore, brazilian funk, and other underground genres.
In pop music Charli XCX, Sabrina Carpenter, Billie Eilish, NewJeans, Chappell Roan, and many more artists have enjoyed wonderful summers, and I recently wrote about Charli’s Brat here — one of the defining albums of 2024.
In Africa, Amapiano continues to supply some of the best club bangers while, in the afrobeats sphere, we’ve had a great year.
Tems dropped ‘Born in the Wild’ earlier this summer and it’s stunning, while ‘Lungu Boy’ by Asake is loaded with big features and club burners for the masses. Other big releases on rotation for me include ones by Yemi Alade, Ayra Starr, Shallipopi, Victony and Kizz Daniel, but like I’ve said many times: Africa is where much of the planet’s best music comes from these days!
