YES LAWD! As tempting as it may be just to let that exclamation suffice as your sole introduction to NxWorries, we should go a little deeper. The men at the heart of this LP soul styler Anderson .Paak and loop beast Knxwledge make an exceedingly clean pair, even as they deal almost entirely in the gritty: vocals that sound lived in for a couple of lifetimes beats that kick up dust as they bump and an 18track set that plays like a mixtape merging skits, songs, and snippets into a package of fluid groove and rough-cut rap 'n' soul gems. You may have heard these two out in the world, on their own or sprinkling some of their musical gold dust on someone else's songs, but this is what happens when .Paak and Knx get home, lay back, light up, and let it go. If there's a Blaxploitation vibe to Yes Lawd, that's just the depth of NxWorries' funk and strut showing. If there's gospel in the grits, that's the history of the cooks. Each grew up with religion. It was Knxwledge's job to tidy up the family church in Jersey as a kid, and when he was done, he got to play the instruments. Better still, when those instruments went bad, he kept them. Similarly, he'd soon find sounds in his growing vinyl cache, and when he moved to Los Angeles in 2008 as a beat maker, his compositions ensured he'd be home at Stones Throw. His hypnotically dank 2015 LP Hud Dreems was the tip of an iceberg 75 Bandcamp collections and counting. Paak was neck deep in those songs when Knxwledge reached out. The singer grew up in Oxnard, where he drummed in his own family's church. His folks got locked up when he was a teen, and while he'd eke by on odd jobs as a grocer, trimmer, and personal assistant, he was homeless for a spell with a newborn son. But .Paak pushed forward, building a career via imaginative albums 2016's Malibu, and collaborations that always seem to make him the star, even when he's just there to sing the hook.
Track list:
1. Intro
2. Livvin
3. Wngs
4. Best One
5. What More Can I Say
6. Kutless
7. Lyk Dis
8. Can't Stop
9. Get Bigger Do U Luv
10. Khadija
11. H.A.N.
12. Scared Money
13. Suede
14. Starlite
15. Sidepiece
16. Jodi
17. Link Up
18. Another Time
19. Fkku