This has been a great year for music already, but my low-key favorite release so far is Lila Iké's ExPerience EP, which seamlessly blends various Jamaican genres with rnb and some singer-songwriter introspection. Some earlier discussion from the rolling dancehall thread:
The Iké EP, ExPerience, is excellent. Rather than heading in a roots-revival direction like I'd assumed based on "Where I'm Coming From", it's much more like updated (80s) lover's rock. At least until the last track where she takes on Sly & Robbie's riddim for The Tamlins' "Baltimore," which if you're going to voice a classic is a goddamn good choice, not to mention it's pretty groovy anyway― dip to dup (rob), Saturday, May 23, 2020 9:20 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink
Agreed. I love the diversity I'm discovering in Jamaican music "behind" the traditional roots - dancehall binary. And each song has something different to offer but keeps that unique Jamaican singing style. Mother of God the way she hits those notes on 'Second Chance'. This EP is placing on my year-end list.
― Nabozo, Saturday, May 23, 2020 9:51 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink
Yeah I love how commanding her voice can be, but then the vibrato maintains a constant note of vulnerability. More broadly, the roots-dancehall binary is definitely overstated, obscuring genres like rocksteady and lovers plus tons of artists worked in both areas and there has always been plenty of mixing of the two genres/impulses.
― dip to dup (rob), Saturday, May 23, 2020 9:59 AM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink
Listening to "Solitude", "Stars Align" and "Forget Me" in a loop. So, so good.
― No mean feat. DaBaby (breastcrawl), Saturday, May 23, 2020 11:38 AM (one month ago)
I first got into her thanks to the talawah authority she displays on "Where I'm Coming From" and in its rad video (though as mentioned above it's a bit more militant-sounding than the rest of the EP):
― rob, Friday, 3 July 2020 15:42 (eight months ago) link