Jay Worthy and Kamaiyah are each California stalwarts dedicated to preserving tried-and-true West Coast music alive. Worthy’s easy, nearly monotone reflections on road life are usually couched in stately G-funk and wavy samples, whereas Kamiayah’s ethereal dirty-macking tales normally glide over the bounce of hyphy, sounding like Too $hort with a style for AutoTune. Each have a penchant for autobiography and fly shit, and once they get collectively, like on 2020’s “Bullshit” or final yr’s “Good Lookin’”, they sound like naturals. It’s as if they need to have already got 5 albums and yearly nationwide excursions collectively.
Now they’ve lastly launched a full-length undertaking,The Am3rican Dream, produced by Harry Fraud. Largely identified for his adaptable sample-based manufacturing, the New York producer meets his collaborators midway, providing a mixture of conventional East Coast loops and sunny G-funk for his or her slick pimp speak. That is Kamaiyah’s first time rapping over samples for a full undertaking, and the simmering, mid-tempo beats give her sing-song vocals room to breathe. She soars over the synth rock of “Entrepreneur.” On “Ragtop Riches,” she slinks between twinkling keys and bass as she grills a possible new girlfriend about what her sugar daddy does. The beats don’t coax her to new locations lyrically, however it’s good to listen to her stunt over a unique backdrop.
In the meantime, Worthy is absolutely in his consolation zone, telling easy tales about his life-style like a mafia don lounging in a straightforward chair. Each motion—hitting rivals within the head with Hennessy bottles, hitting the stroll with intercourse staff and drug sellers—is rendered in the identical amber hue, like he’s residing out a film in actual time. That stated, his writing lacks the specificity of fellow mack-daddy savants like Larry June or Roc Marciano. His concepts can sometimes develop stale: “Figueroa Fortunes,” the place he flies solo over easy yacht rock guitars, is only a guidelines of lust, medicine, and cash that sounds labored and awkward.
Their types could also be completely different, however Worthy and Kamaiyah play off of their contrasting approaches effectively. Take the triumphant nearer “Streetlights,” the place they each share success tales over a drumless synth line and a wailing vocal pattern. Worthy delivers a ruff-and-tumble recounting of beating federal circumstances and basking in musical heroes like Oakland rap legend Spice 1. Kamaiyah acknowledges how she went from being a uncared for baby to major-label hopeful to staunch indie artist who nonetheless snagged big-time co-signs. Every verse is inspiring by itself, however the interaction between Worthy’s stoicism and Kamaiyah’s melodies brings each accounts into clearer decision.
Each Worthy and Kamaiyah are so charismatic and laidback, they appear to not care should you’re listening to them or not. They create sauce to even essentially the most banal observations, which, on prime of Fraud’s persistently plush manufacturing, makes THE AM3RICAN DREAM float by in a cool haze. It’s not adventurous, however it sits excellent like your favourite New Period fitted.
