Five For Friday ft. [@SqueeksTP], [@Gianni_Mae], [@KwakuxAsante] + more

Five For Friday is back again with 5 releases from the past week you should pay attention to.

Five For Friday is back again giving you 5 great tracks/projects for your Friday. Friday is essentially the most important day of the week musically, and typically a lot of music drops on Friday’s. Friday is the day that the official charts are announced, which lets us know who holds the coveted number one position. We’ve had another very busy week of great music so to make life a little easier this Friday we are giving you 5 of our top picks that have recently dropped to start off your weekend listening.

Bawo – Building Castles

West London’s Bawo is keeping up his run with latest single ‘Building Castles’. On the record, we get his nonchalant yet charismatic delivery switching between more serious exploration of relationships and some more tongue in cheek lyricism. It is a perfect blend and paired with the mellow production it really brings you into the world he’s trying to create. It encapsulates the romantic interaction from start to finish masterfully, making the track feel as if we were going along that same journey with him. The visuals do a good job of reflecting this and are kept simple but clean which is all the track needs to shine. ‘Building Castles’ is taken from Bawo’s Live & Let Thrive EP which was released today and you can listen to it here if you’re feeling this one. 

Squeeks – Daily Duppy

Big Squeeko is back and he might be even better than before. Granted Daily Duppy is a platform where we expect everyone to deliver their absolute best but to have done around 4 and a half years of a 9 year sentence and be on form like this, Squeeks is special. He graces two beats and goes with a calmer delivery than at least I expected. Despite the calmness, or maybe due to it, he displays his lyrical dexterity across both and shows us that classic Street Rap that people love him for. It also serves as a reminder of the quality that he can deliver whilst simultaneously introducing himself to a new audience who might not have followed his journey before now. Squeeks is home and it’s looking like musically he’s ready to deliver and take centre stage again.

Kwaku Asante – ODE 

Kwaku Asante continues to deliver his full bodied sound on his latest EP ODE. The five track EP features the previously released ‘Angel’ and ‘Illusions’ which were strong introductions to the project without giving away too much. The additional three tracks live up to the high bar Kwaku continues to set for himself and the whole project comes together really nicely. This isn’t to be understated as Kwaku creates cohesion without ending up with monotony, each track on the project could stand alone as a single yet they all come together harmoniously for the just under 20 minute runtime. It is a project that brims with insightful, introspective lyricism as the rising R&B phenomenon touches on themes of family, love, faith, and frustration. Definitely not a project to miss.

Isaiah Rashad Ft. 4r Da Locals – Headshots

Isaiah Rashad is back again with another single taken from his upcoming project The House Is Burning. ‘Headshots’ feels like a quintessential Isaiah Rashad track which is good to see amongst the new releases which showed him doing some experimenting with his sound. Experimenting is good, but your fans are always going to appreciate it when you deliver that boundary pushing alongside cuts that are closer to the classic sounds that made them fall in love with an artist. It is an introspective record that taps into Isaiah’s own journey with sobriety and is a good indication of what we can expect on this new album which was slated for a June release but now July is looking more likely.

Gianni Mae – Love Me Long

‘Love Me Long’ is Gianni Mae’s first teaser of her upcoming project and it’s definitely the right way to set the tone for the quality we can expect. The track blends traditional Caribbean rhythm and production elements with Pop and it works a lot better than that may initially sound on paper. Gianni manages to mesh the two worlds without making it feel forced which creates for a sound that feels really unique. On the track she explores a romantic relationship and the highs and lows that come with it and how self love is needed to navigate that. Speaking on the record Gianni said:

“‘Love Me Long’ tells the story of a woman who will not be played or fooled by no man in a relationship. She shows vulnerability and softness because she does want to be connected despite the lows and highs. But the time has come to restore thoughts and intentions and prepare for new beginnings and ultimately letting go.”

You can check out the previous Five For Friday here.