International Hip Hop, R&B & More

We've talked about this in the Hip Hop and R&B threads, but for those that somehow stumble into this thread without prior knowledge, here's a little Q&A.

International?

This thread is mainly for Hip Hop and R&B as well as related genres performed in any language that isn't in English, or is performed in English but by artists from outside the UK, Canada, the US etc. You get it.

What do you mean with "more"? And why just one thread for more than one genre?

A: One dead thread is better than several. Also, as you will find out, genres like Hip Hop, R&B, Dancehall, Afrobeat and so on are increasingly combined by artists, especially in Africa, the Caribbean and parts of Europe (France, the Netherlands, among others). Similarly, a lot of German rap is heavily influenced by Turkish, Eastern European, Arabic and North African music, whereas a lot of current Swiss rap is influenced by music from the Balkans. Of course all these countries also have regular Trap, Boombap, R&B and so on.

Does this mean I should post what I perceive to be pure Afrobeat, Dancehall and so on in this thread?

A: No, we do have a dead thread for that: African and Caribbean Music • forum.chorus.fm. Only post if here if you think it's also somehow Hip Hop and/or R&B (including sub-genres, like Grime or Afrotrap), or if its performed by Hip Hop and/or R&B artists.

So where do we start?

I don't have a lot of time left, so I will start of with a small selection of 2019-ish songs I enjoy:

Netherlands:

Germany:

Manuellsen ft. Rola - Halbmond im iPhone (prod. by Juh-Dee, Mesh, Frio)

Switzerland:

Pronto - SIDE WALK

Japan:

OMAE
PETTY (Remix) (feat. MRSHLL)
Friday Night Plans, JJJ, STUTS - PRISM

France:

Souf - Ça c'est fait (Clip Officiel)

China:

Higher Brothers - No More feat. NIKI

You can also check out these Spotify playlists:

German/Swiss/Austrian 2019
Dutch 2019

German/Swiss/Austrian 2018
Dutch 2017/2018

In the future I might just create a unified Spotify playlist for this thread, to keep it simple.

 

I'm all in.

Really digging the new albums from Nekfeu and Romeo Elvis. Got a mate who's half French, so i'm always getting recs from him. Also digging the L'or du commun album from late last year.

 

Sadly I'm pretty out the loop when it comes to French Hip Hop, except for maybe mainstream songs which playlists feed me.

 

I wont pretend to be in the know, I only know a little. But in the past I've dug stuff from Grems, Alpha Wann and Josman. I'm at a work computer at the moment and can't link an YT vids unfortunately. I'll try when I get home.

 

A new-ish Japanese group, apparently heavily inspired by 90s R&B. I love this song.

This song kind of embodies this thread. It's an R&B song, but also an Afrobeat song. On top of that, it's performed in French by a Ghanian-Dutch singer. I have it on heavy rotation.

 

German x French R&B hit.

 

hell yeah.

 

Welcome.

This feels like cheating because she is blowing up in the US, but it's never not a good time to share some Rosalia, easily one of the most exciting artists of the last few years.

And another Catalonian artist I adore that deserves more attention:

 

Sara-J, from Japan, is one of my favorite new R&B artists.

 

This was my favourite album overall last year: "Hart Fragil" by German R&B/Soul/Pop artist Lary. She's incredible.

A more traditional German contemporary R&B from last year that I adored was "12:12" by Rola. It's an homage too 90s and 00s R&B.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vosBg0_EwTw

 

@PauLo I think you’d like this song and the EP it is on

 

This thread also exists by the way:

German Music • forum.chorus.fm

 

Sweet, I’ll give it a spin!

 

Yeah, the whole EP is bloody great. Checking out more of his stuff now.

 

I'm very excited about the Max Herre album that's coming out later this year. He's the former frontman of legendary German rap group Freundeskreis (think A Tribe Called Quest). Unlike many other frontmen however, he has never stopped being relevant, both musically and commercially. His musical influences are very diverse, which has always been audible.

 

So, after really digging the OG Keemo EP and his other stuff, I thought I’d do a little research and see what other decent German hip hop I could find. Not sure where’s best to look though, because all I’m finding is a lot of auto tuned trap stuff that doesn’t really do much for me. However, I’ve been really impressed by Azhumjot and Genetikk. Both have trap type moments, but both go hard.

We’ll just ignore Genetikks early days where they wanted to be juggalos haha

 

German hip hop is very big, one of the biggest hip hop scenes there is, so unless you speak German it's pretty impenetrable. You're right that currently most mainstream hip hop (hip hop being the by far most dominant genre on the charts) is autotune-heavy, trap and like afrotrap. As are the big Spotify playlists. However, there is tons of other stuff too, old and current. I don't really have time right now to list stuff, but listen to the two Dynamite Deluxe albums, "Deluxe Soundsystem" from the 90s and "TNT" from the 00s. Both are different sonically but both are sick (see below).

 

I don't mind a bit of trap when it's done well, but nothing really held my attention like those mentioned above. I'll give those in the videos a listen in a bit.

Dug some of Afrob too, cool kind of conscious rap type stuff.

 

Afrob and the rapper of Dynamite Deluxe, Samy Deluxe, made two albums together too. They’re two of my favorite rappers. Also check out Megaloh’s albums.

Casper and Marteria, two huge stars, put out a big album together last year that might be your thing:

Also MoTrip:

 

Cheers for all the recs, man. Appreciate it.

 

Not sure whether to post it in here, but I've been digging the band Boogarins recently. Kind of like a chilled, more experimental Tame Impala, just Brazilian. Got the same kinda vibe as Khruangbin too. Really good stuff.

 

@PauLo

 

New song by Pronto, currently my favorite Swiss rapper and also Switzerland’s most successful rapper (except for Loredana, who unlike Pronto doesn’t rap in a local dialect and focuses on the larger German market).

 

Loyle Carner anybody?

 

That's good stuff. You could probably just post that in the regular rap or R&B thread though.