MNEK - Every Little Word

I have told everyone I know that MNEK will be the future reigning King of R&B. He has spent the last few years, writing, producing and singing for everyone from Rudimental and Little Mix to Kylie but the King has finally come to claim his throne.

The production is immaculate/crunchy/funky etc. and his voice is flawless. I encourage you to find fault in it. 

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MNEK - Get Along With You Refix

I've told you many times: this kid is going to be successful.
 
  MNEK - Get Along With You (Kelis Refix) by MNEK

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MNEK - If Truth Be Told

I've posted about him before and I met him this summer at Underage. His voice is far beyond his years and so is his music. He's pretty damn cool, he's The Guardian's New Band of the Day and I think you should listen to his first official single.

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MNEK

On the subject of voices that surprise me, let's continue on from Zoo Kid with MNEK. I first went on his Myspace on some random day when I was probably meant to be revising. Devil In Pumps was on his player. I may have then Formspringed him about how ridiculously amazing his voice is... Maybe. He probably worked his little Nigerian ass off (just like me) in his bedroom putting those songs up until someone took notice. He made Tinashe's Saved a club tune and got his remix of Written In The Stars on the Ministry of Sound CD (cop dat disk). The Guardian and NME named him a producer to look out for, and he's friends with Frankmusik. He writes, he produces, he's usually hilarious on twitter.

The production is unashamedly pop, but the good kind. His voice is way too good to be most of the typical crappy top 40 mess you hear every week, and I'd even go as far as to say that I'd buy his music. As a poor A level student, that IS special. Plus he's 16 and sounds like he's about 20, so you know... That's pretty special.

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New Music

With artists like Rebecca Black (I don't care if it was a Bob Dylan cover) getting credible air play on our radios, I almost agree with my Dad about the fact that there was nothing greater than his generation. Everything was new and original. People didn't sample the crap out of songs, and when they did, it at least sounded good *take note Black Eyed Peas.

But then I hear people like Ghostpoet, Zoo Kid, Aloe Blacc, MNEK, Bon Iver, OFWGKTA, Anisa, Ellie Goulding, Foals,  Laura Marling and Adele and I sit and think 'Are you mental?!'

If music gets better than this I will explode. We're in an era where it's okay to fuse indie and rock influences with rap without being a gangster who 'smacks up his hoes'. It's okay to love music that is chopped and screwed with until it's totally unrecognisable. You don't have to sing. Gil Scott-Heron and Scroobius Pip taught me that.You can mash up as many songs as you want and still call it music. Finally British artists are realising they don't have to put on an American accent. Kanye made it acceptable. Dubstep can be in the charts without sounding too 'mainstream'. Jamie XX can and will work with Drake, and I'm pretty sure Florence already has (see Drake live post).


People have to accept the noughties. They happened. They were mostly crammed with horrible pop bands such as A1 and Aaron Carter (Spice Girls are still legends). Towards the end they were a little less terrible. Foals or White Lies or half the urban music scene would have ever seen the light of day had they never happened. A fair few would miss the face melting bass of Katy On A Mission. After all, good must come from the bad. Especially the really bad.

So maybe the UK and the rest of the music industry in general had a little bad patch. I'm pleased to announce we have entered the Golden Era.

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