DILLON COOPER KUNG FOO [VIDEO]

It's really nice to find a fresh piece of music - something that isn't just new in the literal sense of the word, but something that also SOUNDS new, you know? It could be any kind of music, any genre, but for some reason to hear some new-new rap is quite a buzz - especially if it's GOOD. I think it's because of the amount of words that get thrown around in rap music: naturally, you get to know an artist quite intimately (well, as much as they want you to know) after just one song - I guess new combinations of words, fresh phrases, new and unpredictable flows are quite attention-grabbing.

And so it was that I got a bit giddy whilst listening to Dillon Cooper, a 20-year-old rapper from Crown Heights, Brooklyn who is dead-set on conquering his dreams. It's just as I said - new, GOOD, rap is exciting. And this stuff is fresh. Fresh is the right word. Fresh like... well, anything good is fresh, isn't it? Fresh food? Yeah, pass that my way. A fresh glass of apple juice? Yes please. Fresh rap in the form of 'Kung Foo' by Dillon Cooper? Of course.

Before you even begin to examine it any further than first impressions, you can tell - you can just tell. DC (can I call him that?) is a natural. You often hear rappers going on about how their rhymes are effortless like butter melting on perfectly crispy toast, but this really is just naturally smooth. It literally just sounds nice, like honey dripping into your ears but without the mess. It scans well - let's start saying that about rap, just as you'd say it about Virgil's Aeneid cause rap is kinda like the modern day version of those dusty Latin meant-to-be-read-aloud-anyway classics.

You better just watch the video and LISTEN more importantly to the song before I come out with any more bad similes or comparisons.

What I noticed first is the production, by Phenom (seem to be a few different "Phenoms" out there, so I won't link) - it's raw and reminiscent of 90s rap. The beat particularly is gloriously live: tight snare, swaggering kicks and nonchalantly hissing hi-hats. The faux-dirge of the horns, a sharp kazoo-like sound, adds jagged decoration to the already roughly hewn foundations; in other words, it's a great base on which to set some nice vocals.

These are indeed nice vocals - even the chorus is rapped, just like an old-school rap song (these days it tends to be sung by someone else other than the rapper). It's confident and brimming with an air of untouchability (i.e. "A lotta dudes I don't know claimin' that they don't like me - fight me") - that's I guess how his rap ends up sounding as good as it does, his words unfaltering as he seems to revel in the rhythm of them. It's clever, too, a clever boasting song - every rapper's gotta have one. The lyrics are bright with wit and bite, but even so there are some little gems that my ears caught more than others: "Physical lightweight but mentally I'm heavy" and "Puerto Rican cuties got Twitter names with an underscore" being just a couple.

If you like this, then you're in for a treat. Dilloon Cooper releases a mixtape, Cozmik, tomorrow.

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