Talk about good first impressions. Kanii is a DMV rapper who released his debut EP Kosia just last month and it's good. Extremely good. In addition to being a solid first entry into his catalog, it also represents a kind of first in style for me as well.
His sound represents an evolution of some of the crunchier forms of underground hip hop into a more generally palatable paradigm. On Kosia we see chiptunish effects, cracked drum loops, and super-compressed textures, all of which are common to Soundcloud styles like hexd, but here are found intersecting with moody, mainline, sing-song rap presentations in the vein of Future. Kanii's flow, even when he is spitting like a machine gun, has a quiet lyricism to it that lends an inherent melodicism to everything he says.
Appropriately, given where Kanii is coming from, Kosia also has quite a lot of hyperpop flare in its DNA - making liberal use of sudden pitch shifts in the vocals and playful lissome synths to back up the beat, all of which are deployed accents to his narrative similar to how soundtrack cues signal punch lines on a Cartoon Network show.
Where Kanii splits from a lot of hyperpop artists though, is that he doesn't have an overly aggressive flow and his beats don't seem aimed at disorienting the listener. I think these facts help to distinguish his sound. Despite the extreme clash of influences on Kosia, you never feel like you're being punched in the ear or harangued in the way that a Rico Nasty track can sometimes do to you.
The whole album is really mellow and easy to relax into, with just a sprinkling of mayhem to keep things interesting. The most chaotic track is probably the foggy shuffle of the opener "Push2Start" which combines dial tone samples and a ribbed trap beat to create a rattling, staticky manifesto.
"Love at Night" mostly rides a tubular set of synth grooves intercepted at intervals with interdimensional cross-talk and giggling computer effects. "Lie" is an affirmation of devotion that takes place in a digital Eden, complete with streams of babbling synths, refreshing patters of breezy percussion, and friendly sound effects of all varieties, including a range of twittering bird noises.
And I have to say, that I really do love some of the beats Kanii has on this album, particularly the minimalist plastic pattern that intros closer "Selfish," it is precious as hell and should be defended at all costs.
It's hard to believe this is only Kanii's debut. He's an artist with a very clear sense of his own sound and talent and there really doesn't seem to be any limit to his potential.
