High Gravity by P Villa has features by 3 artists who grace a few tracks with some light-hearted raps. The album comes in with “Won’t U Stay?,” a track that begins with a sample of a round of applause, preparing you for a musical experience that feels celebratory.
“Hop Scotch” has a dope bassline, hard kicks, slaps and claps that together make you feel like you’re getting jumped by a slew of women.
My personal favorite on this project is “J108.” It’s spacey. It’s poppy. And after about 45 seconds or so it reminds me of some older Daft Punk. I could picture driving out to the beach (or anywhere else to clear my mind) and vibing to this joint. You gotta play this track. Trust me.
On “Cloudy” Villa samples some of Q-Tip’s vocals from his first major solo hit “Vibrant Thang.” Though the repatative track feels like an interlude that got looped for too long something about it kept me listening.
After listening to the first track I thought of something The Mighty Mos Def said about beat tapes: “The future of hip-hop, to me, is the instrumental album. Once people really get to experience hip-hop as sonic phenomenon away from the personality of a vocalist, it’s like whoa!”
I feel similar about instrumental albums. Thanks to the legacy of the late J Dilla and the ongoing legacy of Madlib, hip-hop seems to be headed in that direction. Younger hip-hop lovers are making and listening to beat tapes and instrumental albums seemingly more than ever before.