![]() ![]() ““Craxy”’!” erupts into a racing rap verse about Siifu’s sexual coming-of-age-“First time I seen porn outta nowhere thoughts coulda sworn I had porn dick”-and then fizzles into staid funk. ![]() Many songs stretch past the 5-minute mark, and they often lack an identifiable concept, or even a verse or image that yokes all the voices together. But the Black utopia theme wears thin as the album progresses. Cool Aid reference a hearty swath of Black music- Coltrane, D’Angelo-and recruit an eclectic range of guests, including butter-smooth rhymer Ladybug Mecca of Digable Planets, genre-agnostic singer Fousheé, and acerbic backpacker Denmark Vessey. On “Cnt Go Back ( Tell Me ),” his raspy croak melts into the thick boom-bap bassline, singers Liv.e, Jimetta Rose, and V.C.R backing him as he delivers keep-your-chin-up reassurances.ī. The crisp drums, vapory keys, and yawning vocal sample on “Streets Got Pages” bring out the swing in his hushed vocals. Siifu does more crooning than rapping here, and his smeared melodies squiggle into odd pockets even when he evokes Black pain, like on “Cnt Fk Around,” the vibe is decidedly relaxed, giving the record a dreamy and escapist bent. Cool Aid favor plush, leisurely arrangements that wind and billow like hookah smoke. “It is what America is supposed to be.” As a mood board, the album works great. is the place where you can get it, even when you can’t afford it,” Awhlee told Okayplayer. Their third album, Leather Blvd., is a light concept record about an imaginary thoroughfare where Black people live and shop in peace. Cool Aid channel their artistic influences and overlapping networks into an homage to urbane Black cool. Inspired by hood movies, swap meets, and the Soulquarians, B. They’ve remained in close orbit: Ahwlee has contributed to most of Siifu’s albums, and they run in the same underground rap circles. The pair are disciples of the Los Angeles beat scene, where they rubbed shoulders at Low End Theory shows and befriended each other at a Mndsgn party. “We mix everything together, and it’s Black too.” Brown Kool-Aid has no set recipe, but it is inevitably sweet and smooth, a standard he and Ahwlee aspire to in their fluid collages of neo-soul, rap, and jazz. “I was like, ‘Oh shit, that’s us,’” Siifu reflected in a Fader interview. Cool Aid after brown Kool-Aid, a potion made by mixing so many flavors of the powdered beverage that the colors smear. ![]() Pink Siifu and producer Ahwlee named their group B. ![]()
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