“(No One Knows Me) Like the Piano,” the record’s centerpiece, is Sampha at his most direct, and raw. Process is an album of singular presence, not just in scope, but dimension: on his debut album, Sampha Lahai Sisay offers rich, lived-in metaphors, as messy as constellations pregnant with meaning, elusive, and utterly compelling. That’s just as important as articulating rage: we need to be in full command of both our senses and our sensations to clear the way for evolution. These past few years, popular culture has shifted the dial on vulnerability, reframing the ownership of intimate feelings as strength. “Do you ever think about it? / Do you ever-er-er-er,” she softly sings over a skeletal, slo-mo R&B sound bed. Mhysa’s solo album fantasii, and in particular the song “Bb,” seeks to externalize these inner shores, like a magician pulling an endless string of silk scarves from her esophagus. "I'm not letting go of my rage,” she told me this summer, “but I also need joy, desire - really to experience the full range of emotions because I am human and those feelings are inside of me, as they are inside of all of us.” When she’s recording as Mhysa, however, her sights are set elsewhere. Jane has been known to employ the full arsenal of contemporary club warfare sonics: serrated synths, sirens, agitated percussion. DeJ’s catalog leans toward one-off singles, mixtapes, and EPs instead of traditional albums, but no matter the format, you know exactly who’s on the mic the second you hear her voice.As one half of experimental electronic duo SCRAAATCH, Philly artist E. Though she is quiet and reserved in person, her lyrics can be raunchy (as heard on Jacquees’ “Want Your Sex”), disarmingly aggressive (“Problem”), or achingly tender (“No Fear”), while her sound incorporates influences like hip-hop stylist E-40 and R&B singer Anita Baker, two of her childhood favorites.
The song exploded on social media, thanks in part to a Drake shout-out, and suddenly DeJ Loaf became an in-demand feature contributor, jumping on tracks by Lil Durk, The Game, and Tinashe. Few artists emerge as fully formed on a debut single as DeJ Loaf did with 2014’s “Try Me.” From the jump, the Detroit rapper, born Deja Trimble in 1991, sounded utterly distinct, with a melodic rap cadence that wrapped her threats against all comers in a sparkling musical package.
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