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yakk:

Azealia Banks // 1991

After many a delay (okay, just one), Azealia Bank’s “1991” EP is finally released. It’s good to get something else bar “212” released officially, although thankfully there have been a number of tracks on soundcloud and a few leaks to keep us interested ‘till now.

On first listen, you can immediately see why Azealia decided to call this track 1991 instead of 2004. Starting off with hollow drum kicks, it isn’t long before an early 90s style house beat kicks in and really gets things going. It gets even lower and fuller not long after the two minute mark, which sounds amazing against an array of chopped and screwed vocal effects. The production is basically fantastic - they’ve captured that early 90s vibe with the sound technology of 2012 to perfection. If Azealia herself wasn’t born in 1991, I would have called the track 1994 in honour of myself though.

Azealia’s verses are slick as ever on “1991”, as she continues to switch effortlessly between rapping and singing. It helps that she’s also really good at both. We’ve also got a final mastered version of Liquorice, but it’s “1991” that I’m going to be spinning for the meantime. Hopefully it’ll still sound just as great when we lose this great summer weather.

Sound analysis… the intro has a feel similar to The Fugees though :)