For many young rap fans, “boom bap” is an obsolete term, associated with dusty beats, old heads, and the trends of the past. Everyone from pseudo-journalistic to rap artists themselves have written off traditional hip-hop as passé as if boom bap no longer has a place in rap’s future. Frankly, that type of thinking is rubbish. Love it or hate it, boom bap is here to stay. Rap is moving in dozens of new directions, and even with NY artists proving that outside influences are welcome, boom bap still rules in hip-hop’s birthplace. And no, it’s not just established legends from the golden era holding it down for that classic sound.
New York born and Atlanta molded artist, Prince Black, is a young, hungry, and innovative underground rapper keeping the boom bap tradition alive with his latest single “Long Black Road”.
Far from sounding dated or stuck in the past, Prince Black has wholeheartedly embraced modern influenced sounds on his most recent drops. Don’t get it twisted, though: from cadences and patterns down to the drum samples, his music is deeply rooted in boom bap’s storied tradition.
A buzzing prodigy among a recent wave of talented, retro-inspired MCs, Prince Black is ready to catch our ears. Bar for bar, he proves on “Long Black Road” that he belongs in the discussion for hottest underground spitters coast to coast.
Press play on his new project, and it’s immediately clear that Prince Black has an X-factor that could take him far. He has some very dense content that certainly appeals to more backpack, hardcore lyrical heads, but he complements his complex bars with a variety of creative flows that are more widely approachable.
Prince Black has a flow that’s incredibly energetic and truly innovative, which makes it easier to stay locked in and focused on his often dense bars. He also possesses an intangible NYC hunger that has driven so many to success in the past, and he’s definitely got the talent to make a career in hip-hop in his own right. So far, he’s yet to drop the right project to break out of the underground, but he’s got plenty of time left for his crossover moment.
Having already demonstrated a wide versatility both content and delivery wise, we’re excited to see how he mixes up his sound and innovates his style further in the months ahead. Once he gains a head-spinning amount of online traction with his releases, it’ll be exciting to see if Prince Black can transform that momentum, energy and technical virtuosity into a quality catalog of music.
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