Dreamville’s Bas is back with his latest single as he gears up for the release of a new album.
On Wednesday, Bas blessed fans with his latest release, “Diamonds.” The new single marks his first drop of the year, setting the tone for what’s to come in 2023. “Diamonds” boasts production from Joe Harrison, Linden Jay, and Paul Castelluzzo, who cook up an especially dreamy soundscape for Bas to get his bars off.
SAN BERNARDINO, CALIFORNIA – DECEMBER 11: Rapper BAS performs onstage during day 2 of Rolling Loud Los Angeles at NOS Events Center on December 11, 2021 in San Bernardino, California. (Photo by Scott Dudelson/Getty Images)
In a statement, Bas explains that the song centers around the pressures artists face regularly from their fans in addition to their personal issues.
“[The single and video] stems from the stark realization that, as artists in the public light, our pains and traumas are consistently up for the public’s consumption,” Bas said, adding that they have to “give more of ourselves to feed the insatiable appetite of the audience.”
“We experience and watch our peers go through life-altering and irrevocably damaging moments that just end up as clickbait or social media fodder. We make public appearances and wear masks in order to be who the public wants us to be. Shine bright for them. Yet our inner turmoils just fester underneath it all. The trappings of the life we chose, the dreams we pursue can oftentimes be the cause of our downfall.”
Bas hasn’t released an album since 2018’s Milky Way. However, he’s blessed fans with a slew of singles since then. He delivered several contributions on Dreamville’s Revenge Of The Dreamers II and D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz mixtape, as well as songs like “The Jackie” featuring J. Cole and Lil Tjay.
Peep his new single below.
Quotable Lyrics Hunnid on my wrist, just to make it rain on Look at all the whips, spick and they span And you feel like you the man But you cannot rub the stain off
J Cole appears to be readying for something special. Either that or he’s preparing to go off the grid even further.
Last night, fans quickly noticed that J. Cole cleared his entire Instagram page. Though it’s not a clear indication of anything, most artists clear their IG to suggest new music is coming. Cole, himself, previously used this tactic when he released “MIDDLE CHILD.”
It’s been roughly two years since the release of The Off Season, an album that seemingly kicked off The Fall Off era. The rapper previously revealed that he had three albums in the works ahead of The Fall Off. At this point, fans are eager to hear what he has up his sleeve, especially if wiping his IG is an indication that new music is on the way. Many believe that the rapper could be preparing to drop a project titled It’s A Boy or The Fall Off in the coming weeks.
Besides his own releases, there’s a chance that the next project he’s working on might not actually be a solo effort. Dreamville was called on to executive produce the forthcoming soundtrack for Creed III starring Michael B. Jordan.
J Cole has remained active in the past year through a spree of features. He gave stand-out verses to BIA, Smino, and Benny The Butcher. However, he also came through with a brand new project from Dreamville, D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape. The album, which boasted songs like “Stick” and “Freedom Of Speech,” arrived just ahead of the return of Dreamville Festival.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – JULY 30: J. Cole performs during 2022 Lollapalooza day three at Grant Park on July 30, 2022 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Tim Mosenfelder/Getty Images)
Cole also continued his pursuit of a basketball career last year with a brief stint in the Canadian Elite Basketball League. The rapper joined the Scarborough Shooting Stars for a few games before departing from the league to fulfill touring obligations.
We’ll keep you posted on what J. Cole has up his sleeves this year.
We’re officially approaching the 4-year mark since the release of Smino’s excellent project, NOIR. Though he hasn’t left fans empty-handed. The St. Louis rapper came out out a handful of singles since then, along with a few collabs with artists like Yebba, J.I.D., and more. However, he’s remained lowkey as fans anticipate one song in particular.
Following the debut of his new song on St. Louis’s Hot 104.1 a few weeks ago, Smino’s finally unveiled his latest collab with J. Cole, “90 Proof.” Smino’s elastic vocals stretch over the bluesy production from Monte Booker and Groove. J. Cole delivers yet another stand-out verse in his 2022 run, flexing double-time flows with a melodic approach akin to Smino’s.
“90 Proof” serves as the first single off of Smino’s forthcoming album, Luv 4 Rent.
Smino and J. Cole are no strangers to each other. The former lent his talent to Revenge Of The Dreamers III on “1993” and “Sacrifices,” both of which feature J. Cole.
Earlier this year, Dreamville released D-Day: A Gangsta Grillz Mixtape with DJ Drama. Additionally, Cole appeared on Bia’s “LONDON,” Benny The Butcher’s “Johnny P’s Caddy,” and more.
Check out Smino’s “90 Proof” below.
Quotable Lyrics I don’t really do the cameras, I be low in Los Angeles You n***as ain’t never gon’ see me, I might as well be in Canada You n***as ain’t ever gon’ be me, it’s best to stay in your parameters You know they gon’ G-O-A-T me, I spell it out for you like Fabolous
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A few weeks before he announced his third studio album The Forever Story, JID tweeted an intriguing statement about his burgeoning popularity. “None of my rap co-workers be tryna rap wit me dawg,” he wrote. “I think y’all n****z is scared, I’m talking to bigger rap artists.” The Forever Story presents a wealth of compelling evidence to support that theory.
In fact, I’ll go out on a limb here and say that The Forever Story is the – as in singular, as in only – best-rapped album to come out in 2022. Present your arguments for whomever and however you see fit, but the Atlanta rapper’s project has at least one song to give it an edge over its qualified competitors.
I’ll go out even further on this narrow branch and say that JID belongs in the top five contemporary rappers discussion, and has since 2018 when he dropped DiCaprio 2. Since then, he’s followed up with the folksy Spilligion alongside his Spillage Village cohorts, utterly stolen the show on two Dreamville compilations, and made me enjoy an Imagine Dragons song.
So, why hasn’t JID gotten the recognition he deserves? There are a couple of reasons that spring to mind. First of all, JID has the unfortunate timing to have made his debut in a time slightly removed from the era where super technically skilled rappers could gain a lot of traction in a relatively short amount of time.
Think about the “blog era,” which spawned such lyrically-gifted standouts as Big KRIT, Drake, Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, or Wale. Being a rapper’s rapper was prized at such a time because hip-hop goes through different cycles. There’d been a long lull in the priority of bars-first traditionalism, and the massive cultural shift toward blogs and weekly freestyles allowed artists like these to grab a lot of the spotlight.
That era came to an end in the middle of the last decade, as Chance The Rapper, who is probably the last of the blog era super rappers to get on, won his Grammy for Coloring Book. Then the Soundcloud era began, and colorful characters like Travis Scott who prized “vibes” over rhymes began to take center stage. JID is decidedly not one of those, but because he made his debut during that era, fans of hyper lyrical rappers likely wrote him off as just another punk kid.
Another reason might come directly from JID’s own words. One of the biggest drivers of any new – or even established – artist’s rise to stardom is the willingness of their peers to collaborate. Consider Lil Durk, who actually appears on The Forever Story on the song “Bruddenem.” He toiled on the underground scene for nearly a decade until Drake featured him on the 2020 standout “Laugh Now Cry Later.”
Now, Durk’s considered an A-lister, a hotly-demanded feature artist in his own right with numerous No. 1 albums under his belt. No one has yet done this for JID, aside from J. Cole, who hasn’t featured the younger MC on his own albums despite working with him on the Dreamville collabs on songs like “Stick.” Even if he did, JID’s an artist on his label, and would probably be subject to the “homie write-off” effect that plagued underlings in groups like Disturbing Tha Peace, St. Lunatics, and Roc-A-Fella. There’s only so much star power to go around, and artists can get overshadowed by their more famous labelmates.
Other rappers might really be nervous to feature JID, whose sheer force of persona could potentially overpower or overwhelm the sort of mainstream-friendly tracks it would take to expose him to a wider audience more used to party anthems than aggressive battle rap tracks.
Meanwhile, any rapper who considers themselves more lyrics-forward runs the risk of being “Renegaded” – the fan term for being outrapped on your own track, as applied to Jay-Z’s 2001 song “Renegade” from The Blueprint. When Eminem’s intricate, wordy verses seemed to tower over Jay’s more laid-back, heady ones, Nas ridiculed Jay, “Eminem killed you on your own sh*t.” Nobody wants the potential embarrassment.
The last reason JID might not radiate star power like some of his peers do is that he’s so down-to-earth and humble. He’s quiet, not prone to making outrageous pronouncements or having emotional outbursts on Twitter. In the few engagements we’ve had on that platform, he always seemed more curious and willing to learn than he did defensive, boisterous, or argumentative.
Hip-hop loves a villain – or at least an antihero – someone who talks loud and seems unafraid to make enemies. Acts like Kanye West or 50 Cent seem larger than life. Hell, even Tekashi 69, whose antics were decried by hip-hop fans, remains a subject of fascination. The soft-spoken JID just isn’t going to be as sensational a character for them to latch onto.
But his rhymes are sensational. Whether he’s talking tough on “Dance Now” and “Surround Sound” or telling nostalgic stories on “Crack Sandwich,” waxing philosophical on “Better Days” or getting confessional on “Sistanem,” he shows a grasp of the artform that almost nobody in the rap business today even comes close to. So, while he might not be as universally recognized as I believe he should be, The Forever Story might well change that.
He’s got the big-name co-signs from guest stars like 21 Savage and Lil Wayne. He’s starting to talk his sh*t on Twitter. He’s got enjoyable slow burners like “Can’t Make U Change” with Ari Lennox and veteran blessings from Yasiin Bey on “Stars.” All that’s left is for listeners to finally, well, listen. The Forever Story will reward them for doing so. In turn, all they need to do is hail JID as the best rapper of his generation.
The Forever Story is out now via Dreamville/Interscope. Get it here.
