Label: Unsigned
Genre: Electronic/UK Hip-Hop
Members: Barney Artist
Based: Bethnal Green, UK
Sounds Like: 2morrows Victory, A Yellow Man, DELS
Links: barneyartist.com, Twitter, Soundcloud
Barney Artist made our Top 5 UK Hip-Hop list for September/October, but now that his debut release is out we wanted to give you a more in-depth look. Regular readers will be familiar with our penchant for UK Hip-Hop with some smooth production behind it, and if you’re not you NEED to indulge in A Yellow Man and 2morrows Victory. Barney Artist sits nicely alongside those two: he speaks intelligent words in a proud London accent, but he’s also clearly been schooled in the art of making a proper Hip-Hop track. The help he gets from producers Elaquent (Lauren), Alfa Mist (Mystery) and Riddle (Helikopters) is of the highest quality and actually quite reminiscent of Bonobo’s beat for Eyesdown. As a young wordsmith from London, it’s no surprise to hear George The Poet getting a namedrop in Lauren with some typically clever wordplay: “understanding what he spits, relate to his schooling, but never came to the bridge”.
We’ve streamed that track and our other two favourites below, all featuringon BAEP, which is free to download from Barney’s website. Shouts to Nathan for putting us onto Barney months ago (sorry we didn’t act sooner!).
