First Views

Artist Spotlight: Felly

Artist Spotlight by Evan Mack

Rapper, producer, self-proclaimed “A student,” Felly embodies it all. Born Chris Felner in Trumbull, Connecticut, 19 year-old Felly is turning heads with his enchanting and masterfully produced tracks. Currently a USC student, he has never toured. Instead, he lives the life of a normal college kid, albeit one with a gift and lifestyle of a talented rapper. His loyal Internet fan base waits impatiently for more content, while Felly imbues a sense of sophistication in his work that is hard to find, especially amidst the seas of online rappers, all the while maintaining his image as a college kid. After dropping his most recent mixtape, Waking Up To Sirens, and a brilliantly constructed beat package on SoundCloud, Felly’s future appears bright, should the young rapper decide to temporarily eschew his homework and grace us with his presence.

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Artist Spotlight: Lais

Review by Neud Kiros

Meet Lais. On June 22, 2014, this Toronto native debuted his mixtape “Session One” on Reddit’s HipHopHeads subreddit, which occasionally features artists looking to make a name for themselves. Fast forward to late August, when he released a remix to his song “For You” with notable frat rapper Skizzy Mars and is now associated with Mars’s record label: Penthouse Music. Lais has been featured on music blogs “Noisey” and “Pigeons and Planes” and is definitely a name to look out for.

He mixed and mastered the tape himself and describes his own style as “emotionally detached”. His sound is undoubtedly a reflection of Toronto’s hybrid rapper/singer scene, although his vocals sound closer to what we’re accustomed to hearing from someone like Big K.R.I.T. Continue reading →

Artist Spotlight: Raury

Artist Spotlight by Madeleine Choné

The Facts:

age: 18
from: Atlanta, GA
latest work: Indigo Child Album

Ignore the fact that he’s booked to open Outkast’s homecoming shows, has been featured on almost every major music site, and has reportedly been approached by Kanye West to join DONDA, why should anyone care about Raury? Let’s just start by trying to label him with a genre. Every new song seems to yank him to a different end of the genre spectrum. His latest album is tagged as “alternative” and “folk,” but he’s also a rapper with heavy electronic synthesis. He silences this labeling tug of war by housing his music under the umbrella of “world music.” The question of “what genre of music do you like” is waining from small talk everywhere and increasingly met with eye rolls. He is emblematic of the “genre-less” music environment our generation has been brought up in and exists as a self-proclaimed leader alongside genre-bending artists, producers, and icons of our generation like SZA, Blood Orange, Santigold, King Krule, or Alt-J.