When names like Drake, Miley Cyrus, and Mike Will Made It become associated with your music, that’s typically when Impose stops offering coverage, unless it’s in the form of fan fiction. We don’t toss around the word “indie” as a signifier to coax you towards Warner Bros’ latest indie-miming signee. We mean that shit the way Mos Def meant it in “B-Boy Document ’99”.
Which brings us to the hype of iLoveMakonnen, an artist we might have ignored based on his rapid ascension of signing with Drake’s OVO imprint, following a guest verse from Aubrey on the “Club Goin Up On A Tuesday” single, and rumors of writing songs for Miley. We would have let “Piano Class” slide on by, but iLoveMakonnen isn’t believing his own hype according to his Rising interview on Pitchfork. He still wants to indulgent keyboard sets in Silent Barn to an audience of DIY-faithfuls holding wine glasses. He’s not turning his back on his roots and he’s still working with the LA-based trio Dream Panther.
It was Dream Panther that put iLoveMakonnen on our radar in April with the remix to “I Don’t Sell Molly No More”. The Atlanta rapper teams up with the crew officially for “Piano Class”, which operates in a lo-fi aesthetic of school house rap. As long as tracks like this continue to exist and iLoveMakonnen continues to give back to the community that fostered his art, we’re willing to set our differences aside with the Mileys and the Aubreys to show love.
