
Unlike some sites who take pride in remaining staunchly conservative and narrowly focused as to what they like and what they consider hip-hop, y’all know we keep it open-minded here at The Kitchen as far as where the genre goes as it changes and evolves (that actually goes for all music but we’re trying to make a point here!)
That being said, when we hear a classic sounding boom-bap banger that’s not just the same ole’ or just knocks a little harder or better than the average record of its ilk, it does a put a smile on our face. “That’s How We On It (Remix)” by underground general Mysonne featuring Wu vet, Raekwon, the seemingly ageless Fabolous and buzzy newcomer, Dave East is one such record. Get your neck brace on then hit play….

Allan Kingdom is based in Saint Paul, Minnesota now but he’s actually a Canadian rapper originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. He just released his latest album, Lines today.
Dig what you heard? Listen to Lines in FULL: TIDAL | Soundcloud | Spotify | Apple Music
(* “Beauty” not actually from Lines but it would’ve made the post headline too complicated to point that out…)

Big night in the 6ix for shows tonight. Nav making his live performance debut at The Mod Club for a sold out show and long time underground electronic artist/activists, Lal headlining a show at Adelaide hall promoting their current album, Find Safety, also featuring Just John and Eyeda on the bill which is definitely worth checking out if you didn’t score Nav tickets. Click HERE for more info and details if interested and hit the jump for tracks from John and Eyeda….

Another one from the inbox that struck us as being a potentially big record:
DYLYN is the new project from singer/songwriter Gwendolyn Lewis who has been making music for a bit and already has a loyal following on socials. After a chance meeting with Colin Munroe (Sky Ferreira, Drake, Kendrick Lamar) in LA, Gwendolyn had a sort of revelation and decided she didn’t want to end up a pop puppet. Enter DYLYN – 80s synths, sultry vocals, and a dose of rock and roll. Her last single, “Mimosa”, saw streaming numbers in the hundreds of thousands. The song premiered with an in-depth interview at Popdust!
“This one is personal. My life was turned upside down and as a result this song emerged. ‘Secret’ became therapeutic, it helped me deal with this crazy thing that happens to so many people, yet often remains a taboo subject; especially in song. ‘Secret’ gave me a chance to connect with people, with my fans whose parents also split up due to infidelity; it became a way of reaffirming for myself and others “You are not the only one going through this.” Like I said, this one is personal.” – DYLYN

One from the inbox last week that we were digging:
Hello, this is Hayden from Sir Sly and I am writing the press release for our new single “High”.
Initially, we had someone else write it and they did a nice job—in fact, my favorite quote said that our new song “turns a hotel-room panic attack into a creative breakthrough” (true!). Still, I wanted to give you a bit more background, in chronological order, formatted by bullet points
April 20, 2014: It’s a day off on tour with The 1975. We’re colonizing a beige, Spartan room at the Courtyard Marriott in Oakland. Landon, our front man, steps out for a smoke.
Shortly thereafter, he becomes one with the universe. Additionally, my man sprawls out on the bathroom tile, smiling, scared, and stoned, naming off a list of people to whom he must give this newly discovered, all-encompassing, cosmic love.
September 16, 2014: The trip subsides, we finish the tour, and release an album called You Haunt Me. It does pretty well. My Mom tells all her friends about the time we played Conan, and how she heard us on the radio.
Deep inside, I’m a little disappointed because I read somewhere on the internet that we were supposed to be the next Coldplay, yet I still drive a 2001 Nissan Pathfinder with a check engine light.
Over the next six months, we start, and later abandon, a sophomore album full of minimal electronic songs. The lyrics are mostly outward facing, obtuse, anxious. It was good, but Jamie xx we are not.
June 2015: Back at square one and thinking hard about words like “sonic” and “identity,” Jason makes a round, booming instrumental in his studio in Costa Mesa. I cobble together a sampled, sauntering drum beat on a bus in Italy. Landon comes up with this sticky melody that’s part talking, part singing, all feel. We get in a room and they meld together.
It ends up being a revisionist retelling of that April 2014 night with a wink and some rose-colored glasses, borne of a desire to have a song to dance to every show.
We feel like it’s good sh-t.
I play it for an anonymous Uber driver and he’s all in. My Dad hears it and says it is “poppier” than our old stuff. My brother loves it and posts it to his Instagram months before it’s released because he thinks it’s already out.
Now: “High” comes out. “It’s an upbeat anthem about ego death” lead singer Landon Jacobs told the biographer, while I was on the other line of the conference call. “It really opened up the honesty of the record.”
Fittingly, it’s the first song from a forthcoming album that is lived-in, loose, and against all odds, a celebration. Thanks for listening.
So there you have it. Y’all dig?
Official press announcement: Long-running, acclaimed Toronto music site, DIFFERENT KITCHEN officially announces the release of its new compilation album project, QUINCEAÑERA: MARVELOUS ISH to celebrate its 15th anniversary today (SEPTEMBER 7) . QUINCEAÑERA, a 15-track multi-genre collection of all new and unreleased music (some on an exclusive basis), will be released as a promo-only album […]
Here it is: the third pre-release single from the Quinceañera: Marvelous Ish 15th anniversary compilation album (yes, that’s the art above, figured we could let it out now that the album is finally coming out TODAY!) Nate Husser, one third of the acclaimed Montreal hip-hop group, The Posterz, is one of our absolute faves here […]
Well here it is, you may have seen varations of this in the lead-up campaign to the release this Friday but here, for the very first time, is the official front cover of Quinceañera: Marvelous Ish, the compilation album to celebrate the 15th anniversary of this here Different Kitchen blog. I won’t reiterate the concept […]
Well here it is: one of the first two opening salvos from the next big project from the Kitchen: Quinceañera: Marvelous Ish, a 15 track compilation album of brand new or previouly unreleased music to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the blog set for release this Friday (September 7, mark your calendars). We won’t get […]
We posted the single back in May but here goes an EXCLUSIVE World Premiere of the video for “Desert Rose”, the single previous to the current online viral hit (currently #7 on the HypeMachine chart), “magic on my pillow” from Brooklyn-by-way-of-Philly artist and new Kitchen fave, Yellow Shoots. Both tracks come from the forthcoming album, […]
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