We at Lyrical Lemonade have been covering Houston artist HVN ever since the release of his first project, Welcome to HVN. At the time, he was mainly known around Houston for throwing parties with his brand DONTDIE. But over the past two years or so, HVN has grown into a creative force far beyond his city, landing on Don Toliver’s album a few months back with “Smoke,” modeling for Heron Preston x Calvin Klein, and just over a week ago, releasing his most impressive body of work to date in All Girls Go To Heaven. 8 tracks in length, All Girls Go To Heaven doubles down on the sound that HVN’s Houston-based team has created, sharpening the ideas on Welcome to HVN, getting more personal, and and offering deeply compelling bouts of songwriting, hard-nosed deliveries, and unmistakable personality. In every way, it’s a lifestyle project, and one that achieves its goal of bringing listeners further into the world of HVN in a massively exciting way. Today, HVN is here with his second visual off of the project, blessing our pages with a music video for one of my personal favorite tracks, “HISNEYLAND.” Built around a charged instrumental courtesy of Broadday — whose contributions to …

Just over a month ago to date, UK talent Nippa made his debut on our pages with “Situation” — a deeply refreshing track, bolstered around bouncy production, silky smooth deliveries, and a sense of homegrown self that seeps through the infectious visuals. Simply put, Nippa’s music is the type that doesn’t pray on a viral moment or a TikTok dance to get moving. Rather, it leans on authenticity and sheer quality — the type of thing that anyone feels comfortable texting to a friend or playing at a party, which is arguably the highest form of cosign there is, when personal taste is put on the line without any other motives involved. Around the time “Situation” was released, Nippa was starting to gain some attention from U.S. and Canadian outlets, and is now buzzing out of the UK as a red-hot new talent with cosigns from the likes of Boi-1da and Blxst, spins from BBC Radio 1Xtra, a follow from FKA Twigs, and more — that is, while finishing up his last year of university in Kent, where peers have started to recognize him around campus. Nippa is a storyteller, he’s charismatic, he can sing, he can rap, and most impressively, …

Houston artist HVN has had a whirlwind few months. Since we last covered his April ’21 single “Draco,” the rising talent appeared on Don Toliver’s “Smoke” alongside SoFaygo, performed at several U.S. dates with Toliver from Miami all the way to Los Angeles, modeled for Calvin Klein, and just last week, released a brand new single called “Marine.” Today, HVN is here to bless us with the song’s accompanying music video, directed by none other than visual genius and jack-of-many-trades, Noah Dillon, whose work spans from visual campaigns for North Face and Maison Margiela all the way to his band The Hellp and a brand called Hot Mess alongside Luka Sabbat, among other things. Simply put, “Marine” is an eccentric, deeply compelling music video, far from what one would expect from a rap video in both visual identity and substance. Dillon builds what feels like a singular world around the song, using different textures of footage, split-screen shots, strategic camera movements, and more to ingrain the visuals into the muddied feel of the production and the personality driven into the vocals. The yield is a music video that continues to build upon HVN’s differentiated sense of artistry, sonically and visually …

Writing about music, I’ve received countless pitches over the years for songs that mix genres, or sound like if X artist met Y artist. Some of these songs are impressive, but I’ve come to realize that cool songs only go so far. They might land in playlists, or get sent in group chats as neat things to listen to, but music that finds an engaged, lasting audience, is music rooted in lore and belief. Because it’s about more than some neat songs. The ethos behind music that lasts is an extension of the artist who created it, and it’s the source code that characterizes a fanbase as more than a group of people who listen to the same thing, but rather, a group of people who choose to believe in something greater than cool songs. This is where gabby start comes in. gabby start is the artist project of a 20-year old NYU student formerly known as Knapsack. And while gabby’s songs are neat as they come, pairing the energy and anthemic qualities of rock music with EDM drum kits and pop song structures, they’re also rooted in a value system that defines what the artist project is all about. …

I’ll forever find myself allured by music that attaches itself to a “lifestyle,” whether communicated through lyrics, visuals, or otherwise. When an artist is able to effectively bring listeners into the world that their music comes from without losing the truest and purest version of the feeling that the world exudes, a new dimension of appeal is added to each release, and in turn, the artist is generally better suited to stick around for the long run. Such is certainly the case with Toronto artist RealestK, who may have built his momentum on TikTok — a platform infamous for flash-in-the-pan musical moments — but is already proving to offer so much more with his incredible new music video for “WFM.” Sonically, “WFM” pinpoints a marriage between dark, lush production and silky smooth vocal runs that gives it an addictive characteristic, complete with illustrative lyrics that ask a romantic interest, why can’t you wait for me? The songwriting is fantastic, tinted with a layer of desperation and sadness that effectively communicates the emotional weight that the topic holds in the narrator’s life. And then there’s the visual, which perfectly illustrates the song’s aura with night-set scenes of RealestK walking around Toronto wearing his signature, …

As a listener, different releases hook me in for different reasons — some for production, others for songwriting, and even some for visuals. Alix Page’s latest offering, “25,” fires on all of these cylinders and more. Just the 19-year old’s third single to date, the new song is rooted in raw emotion, not losing an ounce of fervency from the heart to the pen. It captures a moment of reflection and growth about an ex, but focused specifically on the prospect of running into that ex after things have gone sour, where and when it would happen, and the emotions surrounding such thoughts, from letting go to growing up. In this way, what makes “25” stand out as such an impressive release is Page’s dedication to candidness –emotionally, vocally, and even in her choice of production. At the beginning of the song, she describes coincidentally driving through an ex’s neighborhood while running errands. The songwriting takes shape from there, matching this setting with a heart-stricken progression of thought that sounds and feels seamlessly true to Page’s daydreams while riding in the car as her mind wanders back to her ex, what the relationship was like, the future, and more — …

North London talent Nippa just recently arrived on my radar, but in the couple weeks since his new song and video “Situation” dropped, I haven’t gone a day without giving his music a spin. The rising talent’s newest release — produced by TobiAitch and 6 — is a warning signal that Nippa is a must-watch talent, and among other things, its pairing of subject matter and galvanizing bounce is nothing less than masterful, making this an easy soundtrack to spin throughout your day, from the walk to school or work to a party at night. 2 minutes in length, “Situation” is brief, but the charisma in Nippa’s melody-tinted deliveries makes the song impactful as can be, taking listeners through a vivid set of lines pinned together by the endlessly catchy hook, “Is you riding, when we sliding? If I tote this, would you hold this? Because I’m about to turn this to a situation.” Even beyond the deeply-impressive songwriting on this one, Nippa’s R&B-esque vocal inflections fit seamlessly against the rhythm of the instrumental, tying every aspect of this release together in a way that makes “Situation” undeniable. Nippa is making a hell of an introduction to new listeners like myself who …

Emerging as a premiere up-and-coming name on the West Coast right now, the Baby Stone Gorillas have been on an impeccable run as of late, matching consistent releases with a deeply unique sense of artistry that only improves and expands with each new release. Every song has a visual and every verse is rooted in slice-of-life reality, executed in such a way that BSG is able to take listeners from anywhere in the world to their corner of the country — a clear marker of all great regional rap, and an early indicator that BSG is in the process of bringing this sound to audiences far beyond South Central LA. Today, the group hits our pages yet again, this time delivering a new song and visual entitled “Gorilla Talk.” This release, in particular, has quickly become one of my favorites from the Baby Stone Gorillas to date, specifically in the way that it so vividly captures the unique personality of each artist. The song kicks off with an aspirational verse from Top5ive, rapping about mansions and progress in an alluring way that effectively pairs past realities with future dreams. Second, P4K steps in with the hard-nosed charisma that he’s become …