Silky melodies glide through the background of “Beef Stew” with ease, but they never once interrupt the brute tour de force that is B Fhukken Have’s lead vocal at the forefront of the mix. Amidst the glow of the piano in “Windy City,” B Fhukken Have does similar lyrical damage with his meticulously-arranged verses, and although his viciousness is toned down for the slow-churning “XIXXCI,” we’re never deprived of the same essential swagger that makes songs like these, “Resurection Paradise (Beef Music Mix)” and his latest single “Babyfood,” unmissable additions to the American hip-hop soundtrack this fall. In these five songs, B Fhukken Have sparks up as many fiery melodies as he does monstrous grooves, elegant poeticisms and cutting confessionals, and though his work has been flying under the radar for many on the mainstream side of rap, there’s no getting around his organic talent in these tracks and the sophisticated sonic landscapes they contain. He’s got an “it” factor that you just don’t find everyday in pop, let alone in the underground rap circles that he’s come to dominate in recent times.
The production quality in “XIXXCI” is ultra-raw, but it’s not so gritty that it would become repellent to occasional rap fans over more serious enthusiasts. B Fhukken Have’s latest release, the white-hot single “Babyfood,” is probably the most polished song he’s ever recorded, but I wouldn’t chock its attractiveness up to soundboard skills and studio augmentations alone. There’s a lot of meat to the melodies behind its lyrics, and the hook that it fashions from the jump is so much sexier a sound than any I’ve heard this moniker produce thus far (which is saying something when considering just how sweet the instrumentation is in “Windy City” and “Beef Stew”). This guy has obviously spent the better part of his life analyzing the craft and refining his abilities both on the stage and in the recording booth, and if I didn’t know better you easily could have convinced me that he was a more seasoned veteran than he actually is. If natural talent is worth anything, B Fhukken Have is already a very, very rich man.
If you weren’t already listening to this artist’s music before now, something tells me that one of these five songs – “Babyfood,” “Resurection Paradise (Beef Music Mix),” “Beef Stew,” “XIXXCI” and “Windy City” – is going to leave you sold on the beats that come from his one of a kind brand. There are a lot of rappers that are basically trying to accomplish the same thing that B Fhukken Have is right now; they want the melodic fabric of a real instrument left intact instead of being broken up into synthetic harmonies mostly self-serving to an auto-tuned vocal, but I can’t say that I’ve heard anyone with quite as much of an unvarnished moxie as his is. Only time will tell for sure, but among all of the indie rappers I’m listening to at the moment, this is the one that I’d recommend disciples of the genre keep tabs on more than any other.
Loretta Kim