- A seductive and irresistible blend of Afro house, R&B, hip-hop and UK funky show that the London artist's star is only rising.
- Karen Nyame KG's music grows in the fertile purple patch between UK funky and Afro house, sprouting into other genres that include alté and amapiano. She makes smooth, sexy, serpentine jams with irresistible basslines and drums, landing with a swing that compels seductive moves. Red, her newest EP and the start of her new label, Rhythm In The City, fashioned after her successful party series, continues this trend towards overtly amorous songwriting and R&B song structures, with hints of dancehall and hip-hop working their way in. Opener "P.L.L."—that's "pretty little liar"—is as smooth as it threatening, a hip-swinging kiss-off at a spurned lover ("Use me and abuse me, yeah / Might have to pull out the Uzi, yeah") where she threatens to "kiss and tell" over an instrumental that twinkles with a warm, boudoir glow in spite of its burning rage.
"Wet" turns that anger into passion, this time a lilting soca-like beat with a chorus about a lover she knows is probably not good for her—but she'll go anyway—with more enticingly direct lyrics. Here, the synths have the subtle sheen of peak-period The-Dream, as if the super-producer and his partner Tricky Stewart suddenly discovered Afro house. On "Nightryde," Nyame collaborates with fellow musical polymath Leonce for an ATL-LDN hookup. Leonce's touch here is light, but the track is more bassline-driven and distinctly amapiano-influenced, with Nyame adopting a rapper's cadence over a supple instrumental. Clocking in at three tracks and just eight minutes, Red might feel slight, but its three songs are white-hot blasts of intercontinental brilliance, as Nyame comes closer to defining a sound whose signature is its everythingness.
Tracklist01. P.L.L.
02. Wet
03. Nightryde feat. Leonce