NEWS
Blood Orange has announced his new album ‘Essex Honey’ and shared the first two tracks – listen to ‘Mind Loaded’ and ‘Somewhere In Between’ below.
The album will be the first album from Blood Orange – aka Dev Hynes – since 2018’s ‘Negro Swan’ and it will feature appearances from Hynes’ previous collaborators Lorde, Caroline Polachek, Daniel Caesar, Mustafa, Turnstile’s Brendan Yates and Tariq Al-Sabir.
Also appearing are author Zadie Smith, The Durutti Column, Wet’s Kelly Zutrau, Tirzah and actors Naomi Scott and Amandla Stenberg. The record is released on August 29 via RCA Records and you can pre-order it here.
The first tastes of ‘Essex Honey’ come in the form of ‘Mind Loaded’, a minimalist but blissfully warm track that features vocals from Polachek, Lorde and Mustafa, and ‘Somewhere In Between’, a busier, slinky R&B track. Listen to both here:
A press release states that ‘Essex Honey’ is an album that has been “created from a dreamscape of his journey working through grief” and harkens back to his childhood growing up in the titular county.
Earlier this month, Hynes announced details of a UK and European tour for Blood Orange that will kick off later this year. It follows on from his upcoming US tour and kicks off in Berlin on October 29, with London shows planned for November 8, 9 and 10. See the full list of dates here and find UK tickets here and international tickets here.
Several of his US dates will see him opening for Lorde on her huge tour supporting new album ‘Virgin’, several songs of which were produced by Hynes. He also played cello and bass on the single ‘Man Of The Year’ and synths and guitar on ‘Favourite Daughter’.
He continues to be one of the most in-demand producers in alternative music, with the news coming this week that he has worked on ‘We Are Love’, the forthcoming new album from The Charlatans.
He also appeared on Turnstile’s ‘Seein’ Stars’ from the album ‘Never Enough’ this summer, contributing backing vocals, and also played cello on ‘Never Enough’ and ‘Look Out For Me’.
In a five-star review of ‘Negro Swan’ in 2018, NME wrote: “Spoken-word interludes from writer and transgender activist Janet Mock pepper the album, punctuating the stream-of-conscious, journey-into-the-unknown experience. At times, ‘Negro Swan’ crosses over from album and into a radio station from a world just outside ours; Dev Hynes has created a fabulous collection of cascading sounds.”
NEWS
Rappers are always debating who belongs on the greatest of all time lists, and now Max B is putting his own name beside some of New York’s biggest legends. Conversations about the GOATs of Hip Hop have been part of the culture for years, and during a recent sit down on Million Dollaz Worth of Game with Gillie and Wallo alongside French Montana, Max made it clear where he believes he stands among NYC rap icons.
“Look, after Big, Jay, and Nas, you can put me on that mothf*cker right after that,” Max said confidently. “That’s how I feel about it after that. I can prove it.” He continued by saying, “After them, you can’t really... put ’em up.” Wallo stepped in to make sure Max truly believed he deserved to be mentioned beside the heavyweights of Hip Hop.
“So, after Big, Jay, Nas, Rakim, Big Daddy Kane...” Wallo started to say before Max cut him off. Gillie then brought LL Cool J into the discussion as well. Max responded, “When it comes to creativity, or just consistent songwriting, I just don’t think anybody got the catalog to match me. Look at my catalog! Look at my tapes! Look at my domains!... Look at the Coke Wave!”
French Montana also jumped into the conversation, pointing out that some rappers only stay hot for a short moment before fading out. Wallo pushed back by mentioning that Big Daddy Kane has managed to remain respected for decades. Max quickly dismissed that argument. “Kane? I ain’t seen Kane? When’s the last time you seen Big Daddy Kane? N*gga, I just did 18 years, I ain’t seen Kane, he wasn’t even on the kiosk! Big Daddy Kane?!”
Do you think Max B’s legacy really puts him above some of the other legendary New York emcees? Watch the clip below and decide for yourself.
