Everybody’s mother’s favourite rapper/R&B crossover Anderson .Paak is back at it, hot off the heels of his earlier 2016 breakout LP Malibu which cemented him into the celestial realm of breezy, feel good, optimistic hip hop music. This time in tow with steady rising hip hop producer Knxwledge, together the two became a singular wavy force as blissed out, summertime dreamteam Nxworries on Yes Lawd!.
Bite-size soul stirrers make up the majority of the hearty 19-track platter, but Knxwledge’s beat transitions appear so translucent the entire album feels like one cruisy loop of twinkly melodies and retro chords circling one another. Sonically separated by his vast showcase of tongue-in-cheek serenades and a light, buttery rap flow, Anderson .Paak always has something refreshing to bring to the hip hop conversation. Juggling his rapping/singing formula means no guest features are necessary on Yes Lawd! —Paak can and will do it all, as he flirts and entices with wordplay before charming and securing with his extensive vocal capacity and raspy chords.
Paak turns curse words to cursive, moulding the most audacious of obscenities into poetry script (maybe another reason he’s cool with the mums), his delivery light, buttery and always with praise but never without a smoked out abrasiveness. His narratives paint a rapid cinematic landscape of antics past and present; a scene of unfufilment and longing for something more on ‘Get Bigger’, “On my break I write a song about the love of my life, this ain’t right”. But the spectrum comes full circle on ‘Another Time’, where Paak practises self-importance and a strong sense of determination, declaring: “Now it’s my season to shine, it’s bigger than you, it’s bigger than I”.
Nxworries arrive dripped in supreme neo-soul goodness just in time to ease into the coming summer months (and for ya mother’s xmas stocking). Yes Lawd!’s soulful, nostalgia induced storytelling and numbing instrumentals will melt you, and more importantly your ears right into the coming heatwave; sans a singular worry detected.
Words: Laura McInnes
