You’re at a party, tossing drinks back, pretending you know how to dance, and suddenly, the aux is passed to you. A pit grows in your stomach.
“Play something good,” your friend shouts over the speakers, but you can’t quite make out the words. The anxiety starts to works its way up. Your head gets a little foggy. Time slows down to a trickle, and then you begin feel alone, so alone, abandoned in the middle of a vast sea to be violently whole by the jaws of criticism if you play the wrong thing.
Well, rest easy warriors of summer, because The Knockturnal is launching you a lifeboat with its “Summer Bops,” a weekly column dedicated to saving your ass whenever you need to impress that cute barista with the rare vinyl collection, or need that perfect song to complete that perfect party playlist you stayed up till 4am curating.
via i-D magazine
Sometimes, you’ll see a guy or girl, on the street, in a bar, wherever, and you’re not sure if that person is something real. Maybe it’s the way she walks, or the cadence of his voice, the warmth of their smile. Whatever that thing may be, the attraction machine in your brain shifts into overdrive because that person is hot, and it is this feeling captured by the cheeky attitude of “Hotspice,” a bubbly, patois-influenced single released last Friday by producer Nick Lee and vocalist Halima Edozie-Akinlade.
Gradually, you feel a sense of whimsy overtake you as perky synths and steel drums slice through the cold thickets of everyday troubles, giving you, if anything, a glimpse of a distant world where the sun is always shinning, the people are always grooving to a summery beat. The lyricism is driven by simple sentiments, but Halima is clever with her phrasing, half-rapping disarmingly slick verses effortlessly, harmonizing with the melody at all the right moments. “Hotspice” is party music, breezy dancehall retrofitted with bouncier melodies and trappier elements that not only make this song feel fresh, but also a worthy candidate as the song of the summer. Go check out “Hotspice” below, and let everything fall away as you get lost in its rollicking choruses with a Red Stripe in your hand.
Artwork via author
