Quick Hits, Vol. 249 (A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie, The No-Maddz, Black Pumas)

A Boogie Wit Da Hoodie - Hoodie SZN.  I feel like this guy's rap name is just plain stupid.  His real name is Artist Dubose (which is actually a pretty dope name), but he has said that the "A" comes from his first name, the "Boogie" comes from loving boogers (not really, its because he is from the Bronx), and the “Hoodie” part is because he wears a hoodie a lot.  That is very dumb.  And too much to say every time you want to talk about the guy.  My rapper name is going to be J Austex Wit Da Loafers.  Dope, right!
So, I saw this guy at a SXSW event a few years ago, opening for Lil Wayne, and I was unimpressed.  Then, recently I've read that he is the hottest shit out there and climbing the charts and whatever, so I thought I needed to check out the new album.  First off, this is absolutely too freaking long.  20 songs and more than an hour?  EDIT THE MUSIC!  Like, just cut out half of these!  "Look Back at It" is the song that rings a bell from the radio, but "Swervin" featuring 6is9ine is the bigger streamer at 414 million.

I kept hoping they would somehow show SixNine's courtroom drawings singing his parts.  Not a great song.  Honestly, for me, nothing on here really jumps out as excellent.  It's too long, and so the length pulls the good pieces into their gravitational force and my brain just forgets that they even exist.  The other issue here is how much of this involves AutoTuned singing.  I'm so sick of that sound.

The No-Maddz - Heaven on Earth.  Interesting stuff, in that this is a modern take on Jamaican roots reggae music from two dudes who won a bunch of awards in Kingston coming up.  I think Rolling Stone mentioned them as someone to watch or something, but its a cool groove.  Not that I know jack squat about reggae - I know listening to Legend about a billion times in my formative years, then loving Kaya in college, dabbling in Toots and Tosh post college, and then just about nothing since.  But I dig the feel of this one, even if I barely understand the words they are using.  Only one single track has more than two thousand streams, and only four total have more than a thousand, so this is some undiscovered stuff.  But, check out "The No-Maddz in Town"

Black Pumas - Black Pumas.  Loving this album.  I had heard the two singles that they play repeatedly here in Austin on the good local radio stations (98.9 and 100.1, for those of you who somehow don't know), but I hadn't jumped into the whole album for some reason.  It's a wonderful throwback of soul and funk and beautiful groove.  I'm so glad these dudes are from Austin.  Not too long ago, I read a short article about the band, and I loved the backstory.  Adrian Quesada is a long-time musician guy around the Austin scene (was part of Grupo Fantasma back in the day, and then started the rad Third Root rap group a few years back, and also played (plays?) with Brownout, a funky Latin thing), but the singer, Eric Burton, is just some dude with a golden voice but no other previous experience in anything in the business.  And yet now they were up for Best New Artist at the Grammy awards, and just sold out four straight shows at Stubbs.
Anyway, this album is lovely.  Strong and brash at times, soft and gentle at others, but it always sounds funky and groovy and Burton's voice is choice.  "Black Moon Rising" was the first single, but "Colors" has overtaken it with 8.4 million streams.

Yeah, buddy.  Get that classic soul vibe - those organs, the strings, the hand claps, the weaving little bass ditty.  And, of course, the voice.  So very cool.  When they do the little woo hoo woo hoo wooh hoo! bit, if you don't feel the need to shimmy and shake a little, then you're doing it all wrong.  Good stuff.