Wale – Lotus Flower Bomb Ft. Miguel

Turns out I’m turning into an R’n’B head. I didn’t plan on it. In Australia, when I want to relax, I might listen to some Hungry Kids of Hungary, some Washington, some Flight Facilities. In Europe I have no problem zoning out to Massive Attack, The xx, Radiohead. Now that I’m in the States, though, things have changed. For one, everything I listen to has shifted up one level on the crunk chart. It’s something I see as a necessary more than a strange development. Feeling somewhat (ironically) ghettoised in my largely white, middle class, tertiary-educated ecosystem, I inevitably venture out into the surrounds of West Philadelphia to pierce that comfortable bubble and remind myself of the grittiness of real life. Accordingly, when all that’s on offer is candy-coated pop, horrendous house and frightening frat rap, my natural reaction is to shun all my alternatives and create a new one. It is thus that the beats bumping out of lowered Lincolns and chewed-up Chevvies have become my go-to tunes as I attempt (probably to embarassing effect but no one has raised the issue with me yet) to forcefully disrupt what would otherwise be my normal listening patterns, injecting them instead with a huge IV of dirty south, dirty middle, dirty east and west and whatever else the good folk at Power99 FM serve up. My taste in heavy rap has become both an outlet and an escape.

Plugged into a nonreality as such, I’ve had to accept everything that comes with this decision including, most painfully at the outset, the introduction of a lot of R’n’B into my daily audio intake. As with any genre, rap listeners need dynamism in what they listen to and R’n’B, although itself a precursor to rap, has become that genre’s more mellow foil. When you’ve had enough of listening to how ‘We the best forever!‘, there is always solace to be found in the sensuous, dulcet tones of R’n’B. To establish such a false dichotomy, needless to say, would be unfair to both musical forms as the amount of nuance in and, increasingly, the overlap between each genre is not insignificant. For every rap track about bitches and chains there is another one about civil rights or the struggle to survive or racial profiling or ruinous drugs. For every R’n’B track about relationships, there is at least another one about relationships. So you see my problem. R’n’B has always represented a sort of homogenous blob of ‘oooohs’ and ‘aaahs’ that I tried to skirt around. I’ve never minded a bit of Mario or old-school Usher but it has always been a thing of quiet, almost clandestine enjoyment and certainly enjoyed in moderation.

Now, suddenly, searching for some respite from the latest explosive single from the Rick Ross clan and fatigued from countless rounds of applause, I’ve turned to R’n’B as my relaxation vehicle. No longer an outlet for occasional hilarious nostalgia, the slow jam has become my jam and, although I can’t say I don’t adore Wale’s newest featuring the Grammy-nominated Miguel (the kind of name I can distinctly recall shuddering at months ago when Friend A – with perenially bad taste in music – suggested him), it’s an uncomfortable confession to be making. Digging Raphael Saadiq or Luther Vandross is acceptable, lauded even in music circles as they are undoubtedly shining exemplars of the genre done right. Mass-produced, radio-friendly joints like this one… perhaps less so. Nevertheless, I am totally rapt with this, questionably Viktor & Rolf-endorsing sex track. Engineered to be mildly titillating and maximally inoffensive, whispering synths, a thumping heart of a drum beat and the sort of crooning that would usually make me cringe combine to form a song that is devastatingly listenable. In admitting my newfound, insatiable hunger for deep grooves and high-pitched singing about love and emotions and that, I hoped to bring you a track that might make the shift seem more natural, less completely bizarre. After ten thousand listens in a week I don’t even really know what a Lotus Flower Bomb is. All I know is I want it. Now. Possibly in high heels. Goddamn.

Wale – Lotus Flower Bomb Ft. Miguel