I’ve been trying to do my hip-hop homework lately (it’s always been a weak spot in my otherwise robust arsenal of music snobbery), but I haven’t been able to get much farther than 90′s gangster rap. Gin and Juice just has everything I could ever want from a rap track, and while Dam Funk has been helpful in bringing me back to the present (well, the 90′s gangster rap-worshiping present), he’s mostly an instrumental artist – something else was needed for me to take the leap from 1993 to 2011.
It wasn’t until I stumbled across Dominique Young Unique that I found what I was looking for: the perfect mix of bratty, brassy vocal delivery over beats which sample everything from house and club music to cheesy synth-heavy 80′s jams. I remain mystified as to why or how she hasn’t blown up yet, she put out two of my favorite mix-tapes in the last year or so (both available here), and everyone who I’ve forced to listen to her in my initial burst of enthusiasm has agreed that she’s something special.
She might not be quite there yet (she’s nineteen!), and hopefully she won’t lose the party-vibe when she finally records a full-length, but she’s already closer than anyone else to re-creating that warm, fuzzy feeling that only golden-era 90′s rap has been able to provide me with so far.
