CORY JREAMZ ALIVE

So we got a nice treat right now, from the up-and-coming rapper from Houston, Cory Jreamz - the amount I've written about him already is testament to the fact that he is doing different stuff: if I didn't like it I wouldn't be writing about it. He's even been captured by the Q&A of the YES/NO Lazy Interview. He started getting noticed a bit more after he dropped his song 'Howl' from upcoming release The Lonely Painter - it being played on the radio by the likes of Scroobius Pip and featured on a zillion zines - and as for this song, 'Alive', it was premiered on VICE's music arm Noisey. I'm happy to see that he's getting the attention he deserves.

Yep, with 'Howl' on one hand and 'Alive' on the other, it seems as though The Lonely Painter - Jreamz's upcoming album - is going to be an interesting and intense listen. Here's the video for 'Alive', directed by CJ himself and shot by Andrew Goodwin - a perfect match for the song.

With unnerving vocal samples chopped-up and looped, the music is thick and rumbling, dark and looming, snapping suddenly into full-bodied synth and sampling - a melding of elements - about halfway through. The skeleton of a snare rattles in the foreground. Although it is a rap (filled with cultural references including Marlon Brando and To Kill A Mockingbird) there is something jarring and unexpected about his delivery that it could be more of a poem than anything else. It's a phresh take on things and in the world of rap, a phresh take is the best take sometimes - it is all too easy to sound like someone else. Cory Jreamz, however, continues to sound like Cory Jreamz.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Like Cory Jreamz on Facebook
Follow Cory Jreamz on Twitter
Listen to Cory Jreamz on SoundCloud
Visit Cory Jreamz' official site

CORY JREAMZ HOWL [VIDEO]

It's been a while since we've heard from Cory Jreamz - for those who don't know, this young guy is an up-and-coming rapper from Houston, Texas. You could call it alternative rap, but it's quite difficult to compare Mr Jreamz to anybody in particular: he is his own creation. Which is a very good thing.

Last time the world heard from him it was at the end of last year with his Vague Current Vivid Fated EP, four songs that run through the fantasies and frustrations of youth. I wrote about it - check it out.

Now he's back with a new song: 'Howl'. Alongside sharing its name with Allen Ginsberg's iconic and "obscene" poem - a frantic and wordy shout to the world - Cory Jreamz has peppered it with lyrics that reference other art-world-related things, such as trying to be "better than Ernest Hemingway" and putting a "black man in the MoMa". It overflows with the desire to create art, dismissing those who dismiss this desire as a pipe dream with a suggestion: "stick it up your anus".

You can even see this intense attitude in the video; Jreamz directs his diatribal one-liners at the camera, keen and fervid.

Aside from CJ's voice itself, whose words strike and reverberate poignantly, the music itself is biting and affective. Experimental at heart, a barely decipherable beat hides itself behind these fluidly rippling sounds, a watery, dreamlike feel to them. An occasional bassline almost gets the hairs on the back of your neck standing on end. An eastern-like twanging of a stringed instrument boils in the background, a cycle of sharp sounds to go with the growl of the vocals. It's a heavy atmosphere.

It's a nicely unique sound, one that's genuinely a sonic howl into the air, a short statement of intent to the world - and I'm glad it's coming from someone like Cory Jreamz, a thoughtful and thinking guy standing on the fringes of rap and hip hop looking to external influences for inspiration, expanding his mind. We'll be hearing his next single, 'Swim' on 1st August, after which we'll be looking forward to his album The Lonely Painter, expected later this year.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Like Cory Jreamz on Facebook
Follow Cory Jreamz on Twitter
Listen to Cory Jreamz on SoundCloud
Visit Cory Jreamz' official site