‘Underrated’

Note - When I mention ‘project’ I define that as albums, mixtapes, playlists and EP’s.

Have you ever gone back and listened to a project that deserves MUCH more recognition than it currently has? Like it almost deserves a whole new re-launch? Yeah that was me while listening to Born Sinner again, my favourite album of the last 10 years. But you must be thinking, what do I know? Can I even define what makes a project underrated? Well for you smart arses out there, here it is -

“When an artist creates a body of work that articulates their vision/message with immaculate finesse, but it fails to gain recognition due to external issues.”

As this is a very subjective topic, I dropped three random favourites. I’d recommend you try them out if you haven’t done so before. Enjoy.

Maverick Sabre — Lonely are the Brave (2009)

Maverick Sabre is a vocalist/rapper born in Hackney. You may recognise him from his features with Professor Green on Jungle and Joey Bada$$ on both My Yout and On & On.

Everything about this album I love, the title, the story, the production and the overall execution. I resonate highly with the messages that he is conveying, in fact even more now considering this came out 5 years ago. He speaks a lot about common issues within relationships— heartbreak, addiction, pain and heavy altercations. He mentions his upbringing in Hackney and Ireland and the overall issues we all face within society — Mental health & Injustice. Another thing that really gravitated me towards this album is his level of appreciation and gratitude. Maverick delivers strong views on how he overcame striving for materialistic items and the importance of self-love. With the likes of Fraser T Smith and Jimmy Hogarth, both Grammy-winning producers, this in my eyes is the ultimate ‘Brit-Soul’ album and comfortably sits in my top 5.

Personal Favourite - Memories

“I feel everybody at some point in their lives needs to be brave to get through loneliness”

Kaytranada — 99.9% (2016)

Kaytranada is a DJ & Electronic producer from Montreal, Canada. You may recognise his popular remixes of Busta Rhymes’ & Janet Jackson’s What’s It Gonna Be? and Solange’s Cranes in the Sky.

Man.. I bump this shit every day. 15 high quality tracks split into vocal and instrumental tracks. I’ve yet to actually define the actual genre of this piece of work, he demonstrates the perfect blend of funk, soul, R&B, beat and dance music, I may as well just call it the Kaytra sound’. He’s Haitian-born so you can really hear the influence of African music in his sound, the heavy drums especially. Funny enough, you hear the influence straight from the opening track Track Uno where he collaborates with Karriem Riggins who is a well-known Jazz Drummer.

I’m still astonished as to how Kaytranada managed to get so many nichely diverse artist and create such perfection. I mean just take a look at these names - Phonte, Syd, Anderson.Paak, Craig David, AlunaGeorge, Goldlink, Vic Mensa, BadBadNotGood, River Tiber, Shay Lia & Little Dragon.

This could easily be one of the best albums of 2016, massive respect needs to be put on Kaytranada’s name.

Personal Favourite- ONE TOO MANY ft Phonte.

Avelino — FYO (2016)

Avelino is a UK rapper from North London, Tottenham. He is known for wordsmith ability and distinctive tone. You may recognise him featuring Wretch 32 on a Fire in the Booth & on a joined mixtape Young Fire, Old Flame.

‘ A ship is always safe at the shore, but that’s not what it is built for’

Of the back of dropping Iconic Ambition and his collab with Wretch 32 many expected Avelino to struggle to live up to the hype that is built up around him. I mean he is the Young Fire to the Old Flame. Now, here is where I completely commend AV. The average gem would play it safe and would produce a body of work that is sound friendly to the masses just to surf the waves, not Avelino. Instead of surfing, he went out to test the waves. A very brave decision to make, which probably explains the title of the EP.

Nevertheless, he didn’t disappoint. One of the best UK projects I’ve heard production wise, big up Raf Riley and OddChild Music fo’real. The EP consists of 5 tracks, which is surrounded by humorous, witty and clever word play that may just fly over your head top if you’re not on point. You can really tell that he was an active youth growing up, experimenting with the Garage & electric sound throughout the whole EP. He expresses his passion for sound, creativity and artistic vision on this project and deserves ultimate respect. He is a frightening prospect and I expect his momentum to take him all the way to the top.

Personal Favourite- Youniverse.

Hit me up on Twitter @AjDotty and let me know what your underrated projects are. Part two coming soon. More reviews ‘pon your head top. You know! lol.

Thanks for reading, stay blessed and love yours!