Uwmami - N.U.N.D.
Ireland. Not the first country that comes to mind when thinking about hip-hop music. Yet it’s the home of one of my all-time favorite hip-hop artists – Uwmami, who recently released a new EP, entitled N.U.N.D.
Uwmami
Hip-hop in Ireland remained pretty much underground until the ‘90s, when it surfaced to become quasi-mainstream. It took about twenty years, but hip-hop culture in Ireland is now burgeoning, providing listeners with stellar music.
A while back, Highsnobiety expounded on “10 Irish Rappers You Need To Know,” presenting a listicle of the top Irish hip-hop artists. Like most things, listicles are subjective, and usually reflect a narrow perspective. But Highsnobiety’s listicle was bereft of female hip-hop artists, meaning it reeked of partiality.
Let’s correct this blatant oversight. One of the best and most innovative rappers in Ireland is Uwmami, who dropped her debut EP, Summer Syrup, last summer. A DIY artist and producer, Uwmami is based in Dublin, where she studies sound engineering, when not making music, or producing other hip-hop artists in Ireland.
Citing her influences as The Clash, The Internet, Pizzagirl, and Choker, Uwmami’s unique sound amalgamates pop, alternative, indie, and trap elements into lingeringly unpretentious hip-hop. Her past collaborations include Paye Fox and Nxbody, and U.S. artists Murad & Icy Punk.
“Like Light” is the most innovative track on the EP, with its robotic-filtered vocals, quivering and wavering with spectral resonance on a nursery-rhyme-like melody.
N.U.N.D. comprises five-tracks, beginning with “Window Weather,” opening on oozing synths flowing into a thumping kick-drum topped by three or four layers of vibrant undulating colors. Uwmami’s flow is compelling, tight with tantalizing timbres. This is a marvelous track, featuring stripped-down harmonics.
“D90 Mellow // Dramatic” rides a dream-pop-infused hip-hop melody full of industrial-lite metallic savors that stop, and are followed by strident blaring synth tones and Uwmami’s skintight resonant filtered voice. “Duck” travels on a booming cavernous bass drum and intense quasi-beeping synths, as Uwmami’s angst-infused tones echo an edgy almost jagged flow. An elegant piano pervades the soft harmonics of the breakdown, along with the throbbing kick-drum.
“Givvvvv” melds sparse, delicious, trembling synth colors with a measured potent rhythm. Plucking shades from the synths emphasized the elusive inscrutability of the song.
“Like Light” is the most innovative track on the EP, with its robotic-filtered vocals, quivering and wavering with spectral resonance on a nursery-rhyme-like melody. The mood of the song is intimate yet at the same time resolutely detached.
N.U.N.D. demonstrates the evolving creativity of Uwmami, one of hip-hop’s most fearless and imaginative singer-songwriters.
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