DSD March 23, 2018: "Keep It Real" - Alec King
Shaun Cordingley
Welcome to the "Daily Song Drop": theguysfrom.com's song of the day feature where our resident indie music writer and former DJ Shaun Cordingley features a song every weekday that he feels you need to hear. If you enjoy the track, please share it, so we can keep on talking about great new music!
Keep It Real - Alec King
I'm pretty excited about today, as we get to talk about Alec King's new release "Keep It Real" which dropped today.
theguysfrom.com does not usually get to talk about tracks on release like this, and King is an artist that I have been talking about here for a while now in his collaborations with Danrell like "Bad Dreams" (which was in our Top 5 of 2017), and earlier this year with "Morphine".
Check out King's solo release below:
The overall vibe in "Keep It Real" is great--I am feeling chill, cruise-ready hip hop more and more lately, and that is exactly what Alec King has here. The use of strings right at the top instantly just sets me in the perfect mood for the rest of the track, which is largely just focused on King's excellent (as always) vocals, and a beat that is pitch perfect for just hanging out with your friends on a patio/balcony/backyard (where every you and yours just like to kick back in the sun with a drink and chill). The chorus of "Keep It Real" also has just the right balance between being repetitive and engaging that you are going to find yourself rhyming along with King pretty quick.
I think the cleverest part of "Keep It Real" however, that really makes it stand out for me when it comes to indie hip hop is the fact that King took a leap and replaced your typical third verse with a hazy, summery guitar-and-beat roll, with a bit of echo and organ, and just lets the end of the track waft away from you. It's risky, but "Keep It Real" just pulls it all together into a really great song.
If you are looking for more Alec King's solo work, then you are in luck as he will be dropping new tracks every other week for the foreseeable future, including a few new music videos sprinkled in as well, so be sure to check him out on Spotify , SoundCloud, or check out his work on iTunes.
And we might just have another of his new songs for you next week...
The February 2018 DSD Apple Music List and February 2018 DSD Spotify List are available! These ones where admittedly tricky as it is a short month (meaning there are fewer songs for me to build the set with), and we are also missing a couple from the lists: "Coward's Castle" by Monti and "highr" by buuzey. However, I have to say that I do enjoy the playlist this month, and I hope you will check it out, either by clicking the links above, or you can always listen to the Spotify list here:
If you enjoy the TGF Playlists, it would help us out a lot if you could share them with folks, as with the new algorithms on Facebook and Instagram, TGF is having to fight harder for traffic, so if you enjoy the DSD, sharing the songs (artlices) or lists is something you could do that can really make a difference!
ICYMI (somehow) here are the January 2018 Apple Music Playlist, December Apple Music Playlist, November Apple Music Playlist, October 2017 Apple Music Playlist, September 2017 Apple Music Playlist August 2017 DSD Playlist July 2017 DSD Playlist, June 2017 DSD Playlist, May 2017 DSD Playlist DSD Playlist - Apr 17, DSD Playlist - Mar 17 , and there's also one kicking around for DSD Playlist - Feb 17 too!
Not to mention the fact that we totally also have a June '17 Spotify List, a July '17 Spotify List, an August '17 Spotify List, the September 2017 Spotify Playlist, October '17 Spotify Playlist, November Spotify Playlist, December '17 Spotify Playlist, and January 2018 Spotify Playlist too!
If you're looking for me to add these lists somewhere beyond Apple Music and Spotify (or you want some of the old lists on Spotify), you're going to have to convince me (hard) by chatting with me here, or on Twitter
If you're looking for more great music, are late to the party, or just want more theguysfrom.com in your day, here are a few other playlists:
Apple Music TGF Top 50 Songs of 2017
Spotify TGF Top 50 Songs of 2017
Apple Music Playlist for the Top 20 Songs of 2016
There are other (earlier) playlists available for you if you check older "Tuesday Tunes" articles, or search on Apple Music itself.
See you again next week with another new song!
-S (@Shauncord)
The Guys From do not hold the rights to any "Daily Song Drop" songs, it is more our hope to expose our readers to new and different music that we are enjoying, or re-expose them to artists they may have forgotten about.
Above the description of the song will be the song name, followed by the artists' name linked to their website, so you can fall down the rabbit hole, finding and supporting what you dig.