R&B: Hoody (Short)

Back in 2016 I wrote a post about Korean rapper Jay Park. In his more R&B oriented songs he usually collaborates with the singer I'd like to introduce today: Hoody.

Hoody had released several songs already (BabyOh Baby, Let Em Know) before getting signed to Jay Park's label AOMG in 2015. During 2016, as mentioned before, she collaborated a lot with Jay (Me Like Yuh, All I Wanna Do) but also released her first album, from which 'Like You' is still one of my favourite slow jams.

Last month Hoody released two new tracks, Golden and Why. Although I personally prefer Golden, both are great R&B songs. Enjoy!

Check out more of Hoody on the AOMG official YouTube page

If you like Hoody you might also enjoy: Alice Vicious

R&B: Alice Vicious (Short)

Alice Vicious, formerly known as LiVii, released her debut EP 'Alice In Plastic Land' earlier this year. On it she sings in Korean, Japanese and English. Watch the title song Golden Blood below.

Watch more videos on Alice Vicious' YouTube Channel

If you like this artist you might also like: Jay Park

K-Rap: Jay Park

As I've mentioned in an earlier post I discovered K-Pop in 2009. Since I'm also a big hip hop fan you might assume that I therefore also dove right into K-Rap. However at that time hip hop wasn't very popular in Korea, making it difficult to find on YouTube. It wasn't until 2012, with the start of 'Show Me the Money' (a kind of Idols, but with rappers i.o. singers), that hip hop gained some traction. One of the first Korean rappers I discovered, and still one of my favourites, is Jay Park.

Born in the US Jay Park decided to come to Korea in 2005 to become singer in a boyband. However only a year after debuting in 2008 with his group '2PM' he decided to leave the group. Probably not pleasant for him at the time, but a fortunate event for hip hop fans around the world, since this meant that Jay could focus on hip hop instead of generic pop songs.

The first song I heard of Jay was the raw hip hop song 1HUNNIT which is a collaboration with fellow rapper Dok2. This song sounds very different from the more recent On It which has a more classic hip hop sound to it. In addition to hip hop he also has several nice R&B tracks like Solo and Aquaman. In 2013 Jay started his own record label: AOMG. Label mates LOCO and Ugly Duck regularly make appearances in his works as seen in NaNa and the NSFW Mommae. For those of you who still aren't convinced: Fire, dancers and dope beats, cause there Ain't No Party Like an AOMG Party.

Other favourites: My Last, Worldwide and Me Like Yuh.

Check out Jay Park's Official YouTube channel for more videos.

Latin Pop: Anitta

Since tonight the Euro 2016 finals will be played between Portugal and France it seemed appropriate to highlight an artist from one of these countries. Given that I already showcased a French singer in an earlier post I decided to pick a Portuguese artist today. The only problem is that my vast music collection does not contain any Portuguese artists.

Fortunately I've got the next best thing; a Brazilian artist (they speak Portuguese, so close enough...).

Anitta debuted in 2013 but only gained some attention in her own country Brazil, Spain, Portugal and Argentina. Her big breakthrough came with the release of Bang, which currently has over 200 million views on YouTube. This was also the first video I saw of Anitta. In the beginning I was a bit sceptical of it since the video clearly focused on other 'features' besides her singing. But later that week I still couldn't get the song out of my head, so I decided to check out other songs of her. Many of her songs are happy and upbeat while some, like her most recent single Cravo e Canela, have a more slow R&B beat. I would describe them as perfect summer songs.

Other favourite songs: Deixa Ele Sofrer, Essa Mina É Louca, and Volta Amor.

For more songs, check out her YouTube channel.