To call Raury a rapper would really be selling him short. It also wouldn’t be totally accurate. While the 18-year-old Atlanta product can certainly rap, his music is far from your traditional expectations of hip-hop.
Raury uncorked his debut project on the world last week. Indigo Child is a perfect snapshot of an 18-year-old musician in 2014. It’s genre-less, pulling influences from hip-hop, soul, and singer/songwriter tunes, while also drawing in tribal sounds, like some kind of Peter Pan and the Lost Boys bonfire scene. It’s recklessly ambitious. Not all young artists are willing to take these kinds of risks at the spawn of their career. It’s also not quite fully-formed.
Don’t get me wrong, the bones are there. Even the most skeptical of listeners would have a hard time denying the potential displayed in this mixtape. However, not every artist can successfully pull off every creative risk they take, especially not at Raury’s age. In his defense, the shortcomings on Indigo Child feel more like sand traps than train wrecks. One could argue it’s better to have a dull song than a blatantly bad one.
The project does hit a few home runs, including the single “God’s Whisper”, which has gotten some pretty good circulation online.
Perhaps the biggest success comes on track four. Laid back and catchy, “Superfly” is everything that Raury does well. The guitar is perfectly rough around the edges. The background vocals and ad-libs evoke Raury’s already-signature tribal vibes. The hook floats in the right places, and brings energy in the right places. Additional vocals from Vancouver Sleep Clinic fit like a glove. Raury reserves the final element of his repertoire until the midway point of the song, where the beat shifts and pushes listeners into a perfectly-crafted rap verse, gliding right back into the chorus.
I’m a sucker for music that pairs well with the weather. This project, especially “Superfly”, feels like a chilly fall weekend. Grab a hoodie and some headphones.