IDK and Kaytranada, ‘Simple:’ Album Review

“Easy Metropolis” is the identify locals gave to Benning Terrace, a housing challenge in southeast D.C. shouted out by native go-go artists and as soon as acknowledged as probably the most lively websites of gang violence within the nation. Rising up a half-mile over the Maryland border, rapper IDK turned childhood pals with a boy from the initiatives, and as his rap profession opened up a world of recent potentialities to him, he additionally sought to open doorways for his good friend. His newest challenge, a joint EP with DJ/producer Kaytranada, pays homage to the D.C. neighborhood and reveals that life there’s something however Easy.

The music video for “Taco”—the debut single off the EP—is about in Easy Metropolis and shot virtually solely in black-and-white. IDK’s outfit solely provides to the distinction of the video. Wanting like he didn’t change after his final European purchasing spree, he sports activities a trench coat, fight boots, and a colourful print scarf tied round his head as males with blurred faces and flexing computerized weapons lower out and in of the background. Tying collectively the scene is a cool, upbeat instrumental that retains the video in movement, by means of IDK’s dance strikes and the short cuts of the modifying.

Easy is Kaytranada’s first collab challenge with one other artist, although the Haitian-Canadian producer has labored with a various group of stars all through his profession, together with Pharrell, Alicia Keys, Kendrick Lamar, and Mach Hommy. His vary of manufacturing, from pulsing home synths to syncopated breakbeats, made him a cheat code for artists trying to transfer away from their common sound. Although IDK falls largely within the former class, he has by no means shied from completely different musical approaches–throughout his sophomore album, 2021’s USEE4YOURSELF, he bounces between entice songs with Younger Thug and Offset and R&B ballads with Sevyn Streeter and Fortunate Daye.

The album is structured across the distinction proven within the “Taco” video, capturing fleeting moments between flights from “Southeast to Paris” and “Paris to Southeast,” the 2 interludes on the eight-track, 18-minute EP. On “Canine Meals,” that includes frequent IDK collaborator Denzel Curry, IDK contradicts himself on the refrain, breaking from a monotone chant of “the block is sizzling” for a melodic interlude: “Chilly within the wintertime/chilly in the summertime/Chilly when the wind blows/Chilly like December.”

Amidst all of the EP’s contradictions, “Breathe” is a welcome respite. “Let me catch my breath,” he chants over an entrancing beat as electrical guitar riffs and the sound of individuals panting and moaning float out and in of the background. It’s as surreal as any of the juxtapositions on the album – within the music video IDK and a troupe of cyclists float above the streets of Paris – however retains a cohesive sound to match its message of interior stability between “the highs and the lows…the love and the hate within the air.”

Regardless of its title, Easy is a multifaceted challenge, revisiting IDK’s childhood haunts whereas he explores new musical terrain alongside a first-time collaborator. For Kaytranada, it might signify a turning level in his collaborative method, or open doorways to albums with different artists. Even at face worth, the challenge highlights the depth and flexibility of each artists’ musical kinds.