Child Keem is bizarre. His high-pitched rap vocals skirt the road between artwork and annoyance. The one factor stranger than his bars are his dance strikes, such because the jaunty, sluggish karate punch featured in his newest video “Household Ties.”
If I needed to describe the 20-year-old artist to anybody, I wouldn’t use my very own phrases — I’d use his.
“Child Keem, not a wave, I’m a vibe,” he stated in his well-liked track “Orange Soda.”
Keem’s newest album The Melodic Blue is being launched at present. He introduced the album’s launch on Sept. 6 by way of Twitter accompanied by an album trailer on Youtube.
After listening to the artist’s previous and new singles, in addition to watching his newer movies, he’s completely proper: Keem has taken all that unconventional power and bottled it right into a inventive power that’s flying proper into the way forward for hip-hop.
The rapper grew up in Las Vegas along with his grandmother — listening to an array of Black artists from earlier eras — and as a toddler he knew he had uncles and cousins who had been rappers. Unsurprisingly, their abilities influenced Keem to begin rapping and by 2018 he launched the primary EP that bought any recognition, Hearts and Darts.
The mission was clearly an experiment for Keem. He tried completely different flows, voices and beats all through its six tracks. Whereas the EP had some enjoyable songs, it largely feels like an try to repeat different rappers reasonably than using the distinctive expertise Keem already had. Nevertheless, the self-titled monitor, “Child Keem,” is an early showcase of what Keem has to supply to the already packed rap scene. Excessive-pitched vocals, a thick bassy beat and an easy circulate would finally develop into staples of Keem’s model all through the remainder of his songs.
Whereas Keem’s unique EPs and his subsequent singles had been examples of his uncooked expertise, they didn’t draw a variety of consideration. All of it modified with the monitor “Orange Soda,” which Keem dropped in 2019.
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Keem sails over a bouncy beat greatest described as a lure ice cream truck. It sounds utterly new and vibrant within the saturated world of hip-hop. The track and its accompanying video had been an enormous hit and at present stand at virtually 225 million performs and 21 million views.
Not solely has Keem’s music began to point out extra refinement and focus, however so have his music movies. I’d hesitate to even name them music movies; they’re extra akin to brief movies shot by an beginner director.
Every video reveals stunning consideration to element together with wonderful cinematography and course. Whereas a variety of hip-hop movies could be decreased to filler, Keem’s are memorable and distinctive.
The “hooligan” music video options sluggish pans of Keem and a gaggle of girls, with the ladies lip-syncing his lyrics for a change. In the meantime, “Orange Soda” is a darkish and noisy have a look at a New York home celebration, with every shot worthy of getting printed and framed. The movies completely symbolize not solely Keem’s dedication to the artwork but in addition his uniqueness.
“Orange Soda” shot Child Keem up the ladder of the rap trade, the place he’s been steadily climbing ever since.
Later in 2019, he launched an album titled Die for my Bitch, that includes standouts like “Moshpit” and “Trustworthy.”
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In early 2021, Keem dropped his first featured track, inviting the skills of Travis Scott onto a monitor referred to as “Durag Exercise.” The characteristic introduced some buzz, nevertheless it wasn’t till Keem’s newest monitor with rap legend Kendrick Lamar that Keem ended up within the sights of social media and headlines.
Keem and Lamar — who’re cousins — mixed their abilities right into a automotive thumping, hearth respiration 4 minute monitor referred to as “household ties” that sees Lamar and Keem at full throttle. With three separate beat switches and a complete dictionary of quotable bars, the monitor has introduced Keem to the forefront of hip-hop simply in time for his newest album, The Melodic Blue.
With options from Scott, Lamar and Don Toliver, it has the potential to be a basic.
