It's been a minute since Cocaine 80's blessed us with some new music but alas, here they are again with a new batch of perfection for our musically malnourished souls. The Flower of Life EP serves as a continuation of the evolution of the sound that was first introduced to us with "The Pursuit" and "Ghostlady" in early 2011. While those who enjoyed the refreshing sound that the production of No ID brings will still feel right at home, Flower of Life continues to push the boundaries of sound with even eerier sounds and a song (The Sun and the Moon) that if judged by the instrumental only, I'm pretty sure could be passed off as country. While the fusion of r&b and country are about as compatible as Mariah Carey and Nicki Minaj, No ID shows why he is arguably the best producer in all of hip-hop music.
Do you remember in the movie Inception, when Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character tells Ellen Paige's character that she must "close the loop" while building a dream so that the dreamer doesn't realize that he's dreaming? No ID flawlessly closes the loops of each song he makes on a consistent basis. It's usually pretty easy to spot where the loop begins and ends on any given song, especially in hip-hop and r&b, however, No ID has developed an uncanny knack for intricately disguising those loops so that the song sounds like a never-ending track; Almost as if the entire track was made in one take with no looping or sampling of sounds. Hands down one of the most underrated producers/engineers in music today.
For those of you who could care less about the production, the foundation of James Fauntleroy II, Kevin Randolph, Makeba Riddick, Rishiram is still unparalleled. Just as we've come to expect, Common still hops on a track every now and then to drop some knowledge, but one pleasant surprise that absolutely no one saw coming, was the addition of underappreciated and often overlooked mother of my unborn children, Jhené Aiko. Aiko's voice is the cheese on a bacon burger, the guacamole on a Chipotle burrito, the Sriracha on... anything; It's not essential for the product to sound good but when you finally hear her with the orgy of angelic voices that have already been fused together, there is no denying she puts this group over the top. Good fucking call to whoever made that decision.
I know that I write about every artist, group, musician that I enjoy like they are Jesus Christ himself, but if you haven't listened to any other artist I've raved about, listen to Cocaine 80's.
It's a shame that people line up to give their money to artists like Chris Brown and Trey Songz who get so much airplay when we have amazing, innovative artists literally giving away amazing music and such a small percentage of the world even knows who they are. Enough of my bitching, click HERE to download The Flower of Life or give it a listen on the player below.
It's a challenge to pinpoint which genres No I.D. is incorporating at a given moment, but country wasn't one I thought of with Cocaine 80s. Interesting to think about given their guitar heavy tunes.
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