On paper, Manon should be an artist right in our wheelhouse. It is offbeat pop featuring a lot of production work from HNC, an artist responsible for some of this blog’s favorite songs of the 21st century. And yet…nothing Manon has put out to now has really clicked with me, and even seeing her live…
Make Believe Melodies failed to cover the last two songs Sleet Mage appeared on, and we regret this error. That’s amplified by this being year-end season, which means going through all of 2018’s releases and seeing how what Sleet Mage does so well is lacking in…so much other Japanese rap. While the Sapporo artist’s reference…
These two internet-squatting rappers have hooked up together in the past, but “Pink Dreams” finds them both showcasing their best skills while in one another’s orbits. Set over an appropriately bleary-eyed beat, Sleet Mage delivers sing-song lines jumping from J-pop t-shirt material (“I feel like a shooting star”) to more ripped-from-context shout outs to Gucci…
Kissmenerdygirl has shown flashes of creativity when working with others, usually by bending their usual “future funk” dashes into something a singer can shine over. “Lotus” — or, technically, a bunch of characters my computer can’t display plus the word “Lotus” — is actually quite basic for Kissmenerdygirl. The producer crafts a relatively simple beat,…
It’s important not too go overboard when talking about an intriguing newer artist and overlook the past in the process. Sleet Mage’s music certainly allows its strings to other artists show through — feel free to drop an essay about how the current wave of “SoundCloud rappers” have a deep appreciation of anime, and how…