February 2016 – Music blogger

WHO: Tory Lanez

WHERE: Toronto, Ontario

GENRE: Hip-Hop/Rap

TOP SONG: “Say It”

Newcomer Tory Lanez has been picking up speed in the music scene. While his hit single, “Say It”, released last year, proved his R&B specialty, his latest song, “L.A. Confidential” shows a very different side of the singer.

His voice sounds more soothing and alternative, but the lyrics still prove to be the hip-hop side of Lanez, “And I hope you don’t expect to be my girlfriend/ LA confidential/ LA confidential/ Cause I think you know I’d never leave my girlfriend.” He weaves in and out of soft notes and rap explicits. Something not many artists can successfully do.

With an impressive amount of singles under his belt (10 in January alone), there’s no doubt his debut album will seriously deliver. Lanez recently told The Cruz Show on L.A.’s Power 106 about the sound he’s trying to create called “swavey”. “The genre of putting more than one genre together…All these artists right now that are singing and rapping, like Bryson Tiller and Drake, those people are all swavey artists,” he said.

Lanez single, “Say It” is the perfect example of the swavey sound he’s trying to emulate. Hip-hop beats echo throughout the song as he croons on the border of rap-singing (much like other newcomer Bryson Tiller). “Say It” proves Lanez worth in the new age hip-hop/rap genre.

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A rugged unshaven Zayn Malik is seen brushing noses with blonde bombshell/model Gigi Hadid. Their hands travel and Hadid smirks at her man. Their sensual caresses highlight every sexual innuendo heard in Malik’s first solo single to the world, “Pillowtalk”.

The lyrics are poetic, raw, sexy, and honest. Everything we wanted to hear from Zayn, something different and true to himself. He creates an entire world out of one place; a bed. “So we’ll piss off the neighbours, in the place that feels the tears, the place to lose your fears.” Zayn’s voice is as flawless as we remember, he makes every note sound just as exquisite as the next. Although this is a pop song, it’s very different from a top 40 1D single as the video also portrays; artistic creations show naked bodies, paint, beautiful visual effects, and more. Malik experiments with more R&B sounds on “Pillowtalk”, something that suits him very well. If this is any indication of what the rest of this new Zayn chapter sounds like, then bring it on, I’m ready.