Let’s get the most superficial and amazing aspect of Well$’s new single, “Heaven’s Door,” out of the way now, because, if you read the headline, you’re already thinking about it, anyway: Did he really do a song with Metro Boomin’? That Metro Boomin’? This is a pretty big deal. Metro Boomin’ was once just another […]
Ryan Cocca
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Record Review: WNDRKND Gets Lyrically Dense on Don’t Sleep
WNDRKND X PGMW DON’T SLEEP self-released For an EP as moody and dense as WNDRKND’s Don’t Sleep, a collaboration with the producer PGMW, the opening lines effectively set a scene for the next twenty-two minutes: “Shit, I thought of this before while I was mourning a friend/We just flashes in the night, so why we […]
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Track Review: King Mez Tackles Ups and Downs on the New “Changed”
To say that King Mez’s life has changed during the last 18 months would be an understatement. As recently as the summer of 2014, Mez was making music in a first-floor studio in a nondescript brick building in downtown Raleigh, surrounded by a tight circle of friends and collaborators. Since then, though, the rapper/producer has […]
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Record review: On Everything I Need, Rising Raleigh Rapper NANCE Shows a Lot of Promise—and a Lot of Drake, Too
NANCE EVERYTHING I NEED (self-released) Hip-hop trends come and go, but one thing will never become irrelevant: context. The same line that’s a dud for one rapper may bring down the house for another; being a great rapper is as much about knowing that difference as it is about rhyming words. That’s the takeaway from […]
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Live: Confusion with But Trust in Kid Cudi in Raleigh
Kid Cudi The Ritz, Raleigh Saturday, Feb. 13, 2016 When Kid Cudi took the stage at The Ritz in Raleigh Saturday night, silhouetted by a glowing LED doorway and surrounded by giant tube TVs, he wasn’t just there to perform music. He was also there to perform a dicey balancing act, one that is more […]
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NANCE works up his wordplay on the new simile-saturated “Yogi Berra” with Tab-One and Drique London
A baseball player, a New York Yankee, a Hall of Fame catcher: These are the things we typically remember about the late Yogi Berra. Being a rapper? Not so much. But consider his love of language and his wry wit, buried in his zany sentences, and it’s not so difficult to imagine that Berra was […]
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Record review: Napoleon Wright II’s dichotomy
You may not recognize the name, but if you’ve interacted with Triangle hip-hop at all during the last several years, you likely know Napoleon Wright II’s work. His production, singing and directing have established him as one of the area’s most abundantly creative people. Only a month ago, he issued the six-song EP GIVENTAKE, produced […]
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Listen: Well$’ new “130” is a biting, aggressive and enthralling track
Talk to Leroy Shingu in person, and you’ll probably find him to be a happy, approachable and likable guy. And as Well$, he’s emerged as the most complete and commercially viable hip-hop act in the Triangle since the departure of King Mez, receiving coverage from the biggest publications in hip-hop every time he releases a […]
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Record review: Big Pooh’s Home Sweet Home
As hip-hop bona fides go, Rapper Big Pooh has little left to prove. His past as a co-founder and one-third of legendary North Carolina group Little Brother should make that much clear. And if it doesn’t, songs alongside Kanye West, Drake and Kendrick Lamar before their names became household items should help. Still, Pooh remains […]
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Listen to “Coldest Heart,” the latest track from Well$
Chapel Hill rapper Well$ has been doing a great Drake impression of late. No, he’s not issuing back-to-back dis tracks at fellow rappers or crooning over Latin riddims like the OVO flag-bearer, but his recent behavior mimics something that only Drake and a handful of other major artists seem to have successfully employed so far: […]