In a Pitchfork review of Cities Aviv's Digital Lows an astute observation is made by Brandon Soderberg, ” A few years ago this would be derisively called 'hipster rap,' but that kind of categorical thinking has been pleasantly deconstructed by now.” While, there's still plenty of dinosaurs clinging to their “real hip hop”, the realest hip hop is always going to be the music that's true to the artists' interests and influences.
Cities Aviv's Digital Lows embraces a new left turn in hip hop, possibly poineered by KiD CuDi, in that rappers are looking to producers that operate on the fringes of hip hop tropes and are considered to be beat artists, chillwavers and hypnagogic poppers. We see it in Main Attrakionz working with Sea Changes and Clams Casino. CuDi did it with with Ratatat, but what his music lacks and always will is a self-awareness that invokes empathy. Cities Aviv is geniune to the bone marrow, but he's got a conflict of interest in being a rapper. The persona requires a competitive gnarl, but Cities Aviv is not about to let that get the best of him on “Coastin” as he raps “I'm not the best but I'm comin' for the next spot.” Vocally, Cities Aviv bares a striking resemblence to J-Live, which makes Digital Lows and Aviv's “Coastin' 7” sound like the wedge between the true schoolers and this generation's preferred sound.
Stream and download Cities Aviv's Digital Lows here.
Cities Aviv's Coastin 7″ is out this week on Fat Sandwich and is limited to 500 copies.
