Kasien, 'BREATHE (SLOW IT DOWN)'

If you're not hip to U.K. born Nigerian-Jamaican artist Kasien, his latest EP, FOLLOW ME, will have you trying to keep up — track after track, bar after bar. His lyrical conviction is contagious, revitalizing the listener through a robust global soundscape. Kasien is the life coach we didn't know we needed, rapping, "See no limits like Bezos, like Musk, you know / I'm an Afrikan Rebel like Pa, you know / Don't give up, I don't care if I'm last / Got too much trauma in my past to fuss, you know."

Opening with a solitary bark, "BREATHE (SLOW IT DOWN)" feels like an anthem for 2023, a retribution for the time we've lost. The beat is kinesthetic, making the listener chase after each buzzing chord progression as the track swerves and pulses. It is a track for late night drives, high intensity workouts and absolute ragers. Kasien structures the industrial sounds that are the basis for hyper-pop in a rhythmic, Afrobeat-like tempo, intersecting UK drill with a Southern trap style to produce an original flow. But ironically the track is fleeting, its energy lasting not much more than a minute — barely enough time to breathe it all in

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