Def3 + Late Night Radio - Weddings & Funerals (Album Review)

Building on the phenomenal sounds and successes of Def3’s Small World, Weddings & Funerals finds the MC re-teaming with producer/DJ/general magicmusicman Late Night Radio for another feast where electronic music and hip-hop combine and reach something different, new and important. The pairing is a phenomenal match – evident that both artists understand each other and as such, compliment each other perfectly. On Weddings & Funerals, the raps and beats stand side by side in triumph, resulting in one of the years most warm, immediate and welcoming records.

Even more than Small World, Weddings & Funerals is deeply warm and highly personal; an album that feels like it needed to be made. On “Better” the homie raps “Funny thing about it when I write these jams, is in the end I’ma probably need it more than my fans,” and there’s where the impact of Weddings & Funerals lies. The specificity of the lyrical focus makes it all feel very universal and relatable.

“Just Wait” comes out of the gate hard with deep, smooth bass and some Dragonball Z. I’m constantly shocked the things I know about Dragonball Z because of rap music despite having never watched any of it. It's a great opener that sets up the rest of the album perfectly; some of the best straight-up rap-boasting I’ve heard in some time.

Late Night Radio is bringing some serious grooves here, as he is want to do. The groove on “Lift Off” is seriously infectious and should be a late-night wind-down party jam when everyone on the dancefloor is spent and just needs a warm hug. “Real Love” is a big, huge love song with an incredible swelling sax line – when the instrumentation drops and we’re left with just Def3 and the rhythm, it’s something special. “Drowning” is an arresting, contemplative, beautiful piece of hip-hop that finds Def3 bouncing over wonderfully lilting keys and horns. The production is so thought out, clear – every instrument, every beat is slotted in perfectly and given the proper space to breathe.

A lot of the album touches on fighting through darkness, both personal and societal, and while I do find that tiresome as a recurring theme quite often, the way the raps are built and sit on the beats here, the message never feels cumbersome or overwrought. Def3 radiates too much joy from the mic to for me to ever find the slightest bit bothersome. This is lyrical dexterity and relentless warmth – a deadly combo. Nothing on the album is more emblematic of this balance than “Push.” It’s a big, driving tune suiting of its title and a song that I would expect to be on a variety of playlists.

When we near the end of the record, LNR and Def3 drop “Got Away,” an achingly gorgeous and uplifting ode to the people that have been lost on the journey. The big, swelling organ combined with LNR’s little guitar flourishes and Def3’s flow is a deadly combination. And if that’s not enough, we finish it not by looking at weddings or funerals, but rather at birth, as Def3 closes up with the exquisitely lovely letter to his daughter, “Rani.”

The word “warm” has appeared a couple of times here I know, but in a cultural landscape that seems to be being slowly drained of warmth from every angle – hip-hop being a very big victim of this draining – Weddings & Funerals is like a blanket straight from the dryer on a cold evening. Highly recommended for anyone who needs some peace, some encouragement and/or some kindness – with big, cozy, groovy beats to match – in their hip-hop diet.

You can stream Weddings & Funerals on your favourite streaming platform, or better yet - go support good music and pick it up from Bandcamp.

The Dough Boys - The Dough Boys (Album review)

The Dough Boys - The Dough Boys (Album Review)

The Dough Boys self-titled debut is a perfect slice of chilled-out jazz-rap swagger; a confident, hazy-blazed way to introduce themselves to the world. In the opening track “Eulogy” BRAINiac declares “I don’t need the beat, I’ll kill this a capella” and with his previously laid evidence I have no doubt this is true, but I'm glad he doesn't go a capella because the melding of the MC with The Dough Boys has created something unique, dripping with ideas and energy. The Dough Boys have some serious musical chops and obvious chemistry that raise their debut to something unique in the quickly saturated jazz-rap world. At a time when a lot of albums are seemingly created for a streaming world, with too many tracks – songs stretched to 4 minutes to maximize profits, etc, The Dough Boys have a created a sharp, focussed, well-thought out piece of art to start their journey with. The album leaves you wanting more, not thinking about where the fat could have been trimmed.

“Dogs Gotta Eat,” the albums first single and a rework of the track that appeared on BRAINiac's incredible Lunch Meat (2019), is an obvious highlight. It brings some heaviness that the original didn't have while doing the very important work of giving that incredible hook – one of the best to come out of the west coast in a long time – a new breath of life. And there is the hook for the whole album – this is serious jazz-rap ysht with a full band, immediately setting it apart from a lot of the bedroom/solo produced jazz-rap that is filtering out into the musical world these days. The Dough Boys are able to pull out a surprising number of sounds and feelings from within small, connected framework. The beautifully lilting summer love anthem “Your Man” floats down the ear canal, while “Blunt” comes in dense and heavy – much like the feeling of smoking a proper blunt. Very different songs, that both directly hit what they're trying to do while fitting incredibly nicely on the same record.

This is hip-hop and the Dough Boys make sure to allow their MC to be front and centre but the moments when they take the spotlight are arresting and impactful. Check the back half of “Collage” where BRAINiac's flow has gains big momentum just to stop dead and give way to a heart-aching saxophone solo. “Amidst Everything” floats on a cloud of spacey, drifting keys. I haven't thought of a guitar as a secret weapon in many years, but here on the Dough Boys' debut, the guitar is a shockingly effective weapon – like on “Thirst” where the guitar just gives the song such a perfect, slinky, sliding-through-the-night feeling. (Check out guitarist Ranger's generally fantastic solo output too. Especially this wonderful single.) And none of it works without a rhythm section, after all, this is hip-hop, and the rhythm section holds the proceedings together tightly.

With their smart, stoned-out, perfectly chilled debut, The Dough Boys are staking their claim as an act to watch on the west coast to watch. They've built a base for something special going forward. And even if they just stopped at this one album, they could rest easy known they've created a legit summer classic of an album.

Support the boys and pick up the album on Bandcamp (It’s also available to stream wherever you like to stream things.)