Latest news with #Quadeca
Hypebeast
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- Hypebeast
Kevin Abstract's 'Blush' Is a Heartfelt Homage to Houston
Kevin Abstractwas born in Corpus Christi, Texas, a few hours outside of Houston, where he spent the majority of his adolescence before moving to Georgia. For his fourth solo studio album, Abstract is harkening to the spirit of his hometown for another genre-blurring, needle-pushing album with some of his sharpest storytelling yet. Blushsounds homegrown, Abstract calling the genre 'Texas Pop,' but ultimately defining it as 'just music that sounds like home.' With that sentiment stringing through each of the 18 tracks, features come from a handful of local Houston artists like Love Spells, along with a collection of Abstract's close friends and creative collaborators, includingJPEGMAFIA,Danny Brown,Dominic Fike, Ameer Van, and top-to-bottom executive production from Quadeca. '2024: I was dealing with heartbreak, addiction, and feeling completely lost. Felt myself erasing myself from me. I ain't even look like me when I looked in the mirror,' Abstract wrote on his alternate Instagram account, @clifford___73, which he began using to roll out the album, sort of acting as a growing moodboard for the project. 'So I left the city I've been in since 19 and went back home. Just to see some n*ggas who know me honestly,' he continued, travelling back home to Houston and setting up shop at his friend Boyer's, where he recorded when he first started making music in middle school. 'No fancy hardware or nothing like that. Just me, a mic, and some feelings I hadn't said out loud in a while. Outside of the ones I wrote most this record bout. Kiko sent me some beats [...] and somehow, although it is haunting, it turned into something I love. And helped me start to find myself again. We kept making sh*t. That turned intoBlush.' 1. Introduction2. H-Town3. Copy4. Danny's Track5. Yoko Ono6. NOLA7. Post Break Up Beauty8. 97 Jag9. Text Me10. Geezer11. I Wasn't There12. Blush Interlude13. Maroon14. Pop Out15. Doggystyle16. Girlfriend17. Bloom18. Abandon Me19. Red Light StreamBLUSHnow on all major streaming platforms.
The Guardian
25-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Add to playlist: Kashus Culpepper's ‘southern sounds' and the week's best new tracks
From AlabamaRecommended if you like Luke Combs, Tony Joe White, Charles BradleyUp next Supporting Leon Bridges in the US Kashus Culpepper's story has something of the Hollywood movie about it. A former firefighter who went on to enlist in the US Navy, he only picked up a guitar five years ago to entertain his fellow troops when they were locked down in barracks during the pandemic. On his return to the US, he began working for a cement company while posting clips of covers and his own songs to social media: one attracted the attention of Samuel L Jackson, who reposted it to his 9 million followers. Within a few months, Culpepper had both a record deal and a co-sign from another navy veteran, country star Zach Bryan. By the end of last year, Culpepper was performing at Nashville's legendary Grand Ole Opry. It's obvious why his career has been fast-tracked. The handful of songs he's released so far take a smart, often witty route through the classic Nashville topics of romantic despair, boozing and the struggles of everyday life, performed in a style he classifies as 'southern sounds', based on 'the music in the cars on the freeway, in the restaurants and in the churches' in his home town of Alexander City, Alabama. More traditional and rootsy than the current wave of country-pop, it flits between country, blues, soul, folk and southern rock, occasionally over the course of a single song, as on 2024's Out of My Mind. Most importantly, Culpepper has an incredible voice: raw, vulnerable, the product of an upbringing in a Baptist church. He's referred to his approach to performance as 'singing like it's my last day on Earth', but his future looks assured. Alexis Petridis SL – Paranoia The balaclava'd south London MC has such endearingly musical inflections to his raps – quizzical then crestfallen – even when slowly rolling through a brooding, smoke-filled track like this. Durand Jones & the Indications – Flower Moon The classic soul revivalists' drummer Aaron Frazer takes the lead vocal here, with doo-wop levels of harmonised romance over a funk backing as crisp yet soft as a hearthside rug. Zara Larsson – Pretty Ugly Reminiscent of glorious high-street-nightclub trash such as Hollaback Girl, Like a G6 and Christina Aguilera's Dirty, the Swede's return has the dizzy buzz of a Wednesday-evening round of shots. Full of Hell – Knight's Oath Relatively clean and accessible business here from the returning grindcore band – which is to say that despite the big, bright riffing, it's still got its fair share of hellacious screaming. Kara-Lis Coverdale – Freedom Trumpet lines wobble in heat haze and French horns sound hopeful notes through an almost tropically lush wall of strings and synthesised sound: another imaginative work by the Montreal composer. Quadeca – Monday Once a YouTuber and video-game commentator, then a rapper and now a singer-songwriter, Quadeca tries to get through a rocky relationship patch over Sufjan-leaning cellos, flutes and more. Annea Lockwood – On Fractured Ground The octogenarian NZ composer visited the peace walls that divided zones in Belfast, 'playing' them with hands, leaves and stones: history shivers through this nape-prickling work. Ben Beaumont-Thomas and Rachel Keenan Subscribe to the Guardian's rolling Add to Playlist selections on Spotify.
