Return Of The Cool By Nick Grant Etches New Path

Return Of The Cool is the name of the debut album released by Nick Grant on Janurary 13, 2017. This is his most recent offering since he dropped the A Seat At The Table (Plus One) EP a few months ago. He has put together a project that uses real instruments to create a hip-hop album which goes in a different direction than his peers. It has an old-school vibe that at times channels Kendrick Lamar’s To Pimp A Butterfly.

It is easy to distinguish between the hip hop artists that take interests in other genres of music and the ones who narrow their view a little more. Nick Grant is one of the former telling HotNewHipHop, “I listen to a lot of different things. I don’t just limit myself to hip-hop music. I listen to jazz. I listen to Miles Davis, John Coltrane. I was heavily influenced by these people early on.” Return Of The Cool is a throwback to music being the vehicle used for true artistic expression.

I’ve heard better albums, but hearing this reinforces my hope in the rap game. In songs like “Return Of The Cool” he says “I’m movin too fast you need to speed up//girl your body’s the dopest I’m tryna re-up//we came from the bottom but nigga we up//the cool niggas is back to turn the heat up”. Grant vibes well with the instrumentals chosen and this is an album that will spin plenty of times throughout 2017.

Features on the album come from BJ The Chicago Kid (“Gotta Be More”) and Ricco Barrino (“Sing Along Song”) as well as B. Hess (“Return Of The Cool”) in addition to others.

Grant has been endorsed by other artists such as Nas and Andre 3000. Grant tells Billboard that getting the cosign from 3000 was important to him, “That’s somebody that I grew up on, grew up watching, and who I related to the most. He told me that I inspired him.” With props from one of the greats it is obvious that Nick Grant is on his way.