Lianne la Havas, “Forget”
https://www.youtube.com/v/Ug96eW6M9aw?version=3&hl=en_US
Earlier this month, Grantland’s Songs of the Week™ pointed your attention to ascendant U.K. pop starlet Jessie Ware and her compactly perfect single “Sweet Talk.” This week, we direct you to another young British lady crooner who might be famous sooner rather than later. Lianne la Havas dropped her debut, Is Your Love Big Enough?, earlier this month, and now she’s up and about, strutting around Brooklyn in a slick one-shot video. Bonus: If you like interesting shirt collars (and, really, who doesn’t!), this video is for you.
Fat Trel featuring Chief Keef, “Fukkk da Feds”
https://www.youtube.com/v/SG8EL6qSqYs?version=3&hl=en_US
So, according to “Fukkk da Feds,” Fat Trel wakes up in the morning, counts the money he has stashed in his mattress, ducks the authorities, and shoots people — but before all that, he sexually pleasures his lady? Well well well: Looks like, underneath all that rough-hewn bluster, Trel is one sensitive, committed, considerate dude.
Major Lazer featuring Amber Coffman, “Get Free”
You’d think Major Lazer — grateful as they must be to Amber Coffman for providing vocals on one hell of a steely banger — would have jumped at the chance to fly her out to Jamaica to party with them in super-sweaty, super-awesome dance clubs for the “Get Free” video. (And let’s not forget that poor Coffman was holed up in some creepy haunted house upstate all winter recording the Dirty Projectors album.) But, alas, she’s nowhere to be found. Not cool, you guys.
Gold Panda, “Trust”
https://www.youtube.com/v/kDL0LutD1Uk?version=3&hl=en_US
It’s tough, considering they’re all so great, but if I had to rank all of the world’s most popular things that have the word “panda” in their titles, it’s probably go:
Real pandas > stuffed pandas you win at the carnival > U.K. producer Gold Panda > Panda from the third season of Skins > Panda Express.
The xx, “Angels”
https://www.youtube.com/v/dYXejsku99Q?version=3&hl=en_US
Shhh. Shhhhhh. Seriously. Shhh.
Ca$his, “Water Whippin”
https://www.youtube.com/v/1q4j9I5lEaQ?version=3&hl=en_US
For his new single, Shady Records’ Ca$his once again proves that old adage: “Let buxom, scantily clad ladies with sad eyes mill vacantly around a drug kitchen, and you shall have yourself one entrancing music video.”
Riff Raff, “Selector” series
https://www.youtube.com/v/3PwBnM24YnE?version=3&hl=en_US
For the latest edition of their “Selector” freestyle series, Pitchfork got Riff Raff on the mic. This is great both because (a) pretty much every sentence that has ever left Riff Raff’s mouth could most likely be understood within the realm of “freestyling,” considering the level of preconception that has most likely gone into the formulation of that particular thought, and (b) he rhymes “I got a potato sack” with “I got a three-legged race” with “I’m in the damn Olympics.”
Quicksand, “Fader”
Another day, another gone-but-not-forgotten ’90s band doing their damn thing on Jimmy Fallon. Possible post-taping dialogue between members of said gone-but-not-forgotten ’90s bands and their offspring: “See, son/daughter who reached sentience after I stopped actively playing music, daddy was cool once!”
JJ DOOM, “Guv’nor”
For his latest full-length collaboration, the baldheaded DOOM teamed up with producer Jneiro Jarel for the album Keys to the Kuff. If this whole rapping thing ever gets tired, DOOM — who, as told by his long track record of various partnerships, from Danger Doom to Madvillainy, is really good at working with others — should go teach kindergartners about the values of sharing.
Sleepies, “Terra Firma”
https://www.youtube.com/v/npQNt3YDI5Q?version=3&hl=en_US
Sleepies’ new album, Weird Wide World, dropped this week. Right now I’d mention about how — between Swearin’ and King Tuff and Male Bonding and The Men (whose guitarist Ben Greenberg produced WWW) and these guys and whoever else I’m surely forgetting — it seems like we’re experiencing an abnormally high level of really great give-no-fucks spazzy guitar rock. But, just in case it’s like that thing where you’re not supposed to talk about a no-hitter as it’s happening, instead, I’m just gonna whistle and walk away.