Asleep In the Bread Aisle

Discovery: G-Eazy

Oakland born, Nola based rapper G-Eazy is attracting the right kind of attention; unsigned and straight out of college, G (as his friends call him) has already supported our friend A$AP Rocky and will be part of this year’s Vans’ Warped tour (words we have not heard since the early 2000s, but still, not bad.) There is a certain menance to G’s rap voice—you hear it in songs such as “Hang Ten” and “Well Known,” it verges on sinister in “Outta Pocket”—but G is at his best by far when he is being earnest and trades the “bitches” and “hoes” for the post-college crisis of growing up, and what exactly that means. G samples a lot of doo-wop on his mixtape Endless Summer, which he accompanies with a highly stylized late ’50s aesthetic: letterman jacket, Ray-Bans, slicked back hair. It’s an interesting choice; you often hear rappers sample soul or Motown, but doo-wop seems both rarer and more natural, especially if you listen to G describe its chord progressions. However, the song on which G shines the most, “Acting Up,” moves away from the conscious retro of “Runaround Sue” and begins with a Grizzly Bear sample. G’s next project, he says, will center less around samples and more on what he has learned from studying their composition. While we wait for what’s to come, G has kindly given us his new song “Marilyn” to premiere. 

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