melt exclusive:
Anna Justen
“It's young Anna's dream to not have that turmoil but through the lens of this innocent viewpoint of a cat who, regardless of the screaming and the pain and the fear, was still a loyal creature always and loved purely despite the pain and the violence. Basically that's the concept of the album; it's his dream metaphorically.”
Read Above: Anna Justen, the Seattle-born singer-songwriter, has been carving out her own artistic path in Montreal for the past few years, and, with the recent release of her debut album, MiCHOU’S DREAM, has burst fully onto the scene as a dynamic, introspective, and sonically intriguing young artist.
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Featured Artist Profile:
Rhys Langston, the literary-minded, enigmatic abstract rapper from Los Angeles, has been calibrating his pen and creative approach since he was a child, but, since his full-faced discovery of music as a creative outlet as an adult, has become one of the most intriguing rappers on the scene.
Rhys Langston
“On the clock”- The Making of 3rd shift documentary
2024, Directed by Ryan Heinz
In compliment to their recent album, “3rd Shift”, veteran rappers Squadda B and JUS have released a documentary compiling footage of their months of writing and recording. Made in summertime Detroit, the album is, in part, based on the grind mentality of the Motor City. With beats by Squadda and flows by JUS, Fat Ray, and more, it has been one of the must-listens of 2024.
Normally based in Oakland, Squadda says that traveling repeatedly to Detroit in order to make the album was “Definitely needed. You’ve got to kind of get out of your comfort zone a little bit, and I'm very comfortable in Detroit. But still… you're not at home. You're not near your bed.”
Watch the documentary now to see how the two artists push each other out of their comfort zones in order to create a gem of a project.
Listen to 3rd Shift now on:
10 Questions w/ odelet
Odelet, the Detroit-born producer and multi-instrumentalist, has been experimenting between genres for multiple years now, and, with the release of their newest album, Angels (Revived), the experiment has reached new heights.
A dynamic blend of soul, funk, jazz, reggae, and other musical roots, the album encapsulates perfectly the genre-agnosticism that permeates Odelet’s creative output.
Currently based on the West Coast, their work in visual art has slowly become intertwined with their musical ventures, and the ultimate result, which is in part represented in Angels (Revived), has blossomed into a transformation of their creative process and manifestation of sound.
Artist profiles
Retail Drugs, the tape-grounded recording project of Laveda founder Jake Brooks, has represented an outlet to its innately creative founder since its inception during the COVID-19 Pandemic, and, with the release of the second album under the alias, Brooks is now ready to turn a new leaf, taking on a more expansive sound while maintaining the simplicity and centrality that has made Retail Drugs a special project.
RETAIL DRUGS
Stav, the rapper from Brooklyn, NY, has spent years carving out his sound and learning to carry his voice in a way that serves as a personal embodiment of his authentic creative intention, and, with the release of his debut tape, limp like fred, he has triumphantly announced his arrival to the rap scene, setting forth a sonic venture that carries great promise.
STAV
Omega nova
Omega Nova, the storied rapper from Oxnard, California, has been spinning lyrically-dense, abstract-inspired tracks for over a decade now, and, with each new artist and producer he works with, a new dimension of his sound is opened and unlocked, cementing him as one of the most intriguing underground artists in the rap game right now.
Dp0mmy, the Atlanta-based and St. Louis-raised hip-hop producer, came relatively late to the art of beatmaking, but, with his jazz-interweaved and deeply nostalgic boom-bap instrumentals, has already made a name for himself in the industry, advancing his craft with each successive project he has released.
Dp0mmy
Vavrix Owens, the artist from Phoenix, Arizona, discovered his passion for music in the wake of a personal tragedy and, in doing so, found an avenue through which to broadcast a message of wisdom to the world, etching out his personal learnings across the driving rhythms and densely-packed rhymes of his tracks.