Photo credit: Weston Rich
Klassik didn’t release an album in 2014, but that doesn’t mean it was a quiet year for him. The prolific rapper/singer/producer was typically visible, performing regularly behind his 2013 album, YPR, and collaborating at his usual clip, lending standout choruses and production to an assortment of local hip-hop releases. By this point Klassik has injected himself into the very DNA of the city’s rap scene, and it’s lucky to have an artist with such a distinct creative vision sharing the wealth.
Still, in contemporary hip-hop, artists are only as good as their last release, and when an artist goes a whole year without a major project people begin to stir. Rest assured that there was a reason for Klassik’s relatively unassuming 2014: He was gearing up for what looks to be a major push this year. Today the rapper released his new EP, Winter, the first in a quartet of seasonally themed EPs that will serve as a drum roll for a new full length. And though it’s short, with just three songs, they’re some of Klassik’s finest work yet. As always, Klassik brings tremendous musicality to his production, and his understated incorporation of jazz on “Andromeda” and “Mind Over Matter” is nothing short of masterful.
As luck may have it, it seems like there’s never been more of an audience for this kind of sophisticated hip-hop. Credit Chance the Rapper, perhaps, for driving demand in jazz/rap hybrids that are more nimble than the static, sample-based hip-hop of the early ’90s, but Klassik’s reach outside the city is expanding rapidly. This week alone he’s received glowing write-ups on both The Source and the Huffington Post. He’s got a solid publicity team working behind him now, and there’s a sense that this could be the moment, that 2015 could be the year he plants himself on the national rap scene's radar. Whether it is or isn't, Winter is a hell of a way to start the year.
|
|
You can stream Winter below, via Bandcamp. He'll play a release show tonight at Hotel Foster at 9 p.m. with El-Shareef, Damir Balo and Blizz McFly.
