When "Flash & Flaunt" came out about a month ago, the vintage vibes and fuzzy sound caught us by surprise. It was a collaboration between Hawaiian rapper PRIE and LA-based R&B artist, blackbear, and their styles meshed perfectly together, forming what was probably one of the more successful vocalist-rapper team-ups in recent memory. Now, after a bit of time working on their respective solo projects, the two are back together in the studio, and their second pass at the collaborative process is as awesome as their first. This time around, they've traded in the warm lounge-rap atmosphere for a colder and slightly bigger sound. Gone is the room-filling bass lines and fuzzed-out snares, and in their place are echoey percussion hits and far-off synths that give "Who You Are" a much more hollow sound. It's an interesting shift in style, but when you start to absorb the lyrics a bit, you'll realize this was the perfect fit, as their creative direction was spot on. Both artists here have albums in the works, so stay tuned for more individual projects, but don’t miss this awesome collaboration between two very different, but very talented artists. It’s the variety in the track that makes this one so fun to listen to, and it’s projects like these that keep things interesting when everything else starts to sound the same.
blackbear