Three very different corners of hip-hop and R&B. A theatrical Manchester artist building a track around EMDR therapy and lucid dreaming, a Lafayette musician who caught a 7am flight without sleeping, and a Long Beach artist turning adversity into a self-affirmation anthem. Three absolute bops 🕺
JESUS THE APOLLO – HUSH HUSH! (lucid dream edition)
JESUS THE APOLLO’s HUSH HUSH! is sonic cinema built around lucid dreaming and EMDR therapy, avant-garde UK hip-hop at its most ambitious and most self-aware.
Built around the concept of EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapy and the healing potential of lucid dreaming, the track samples a famous lullaby and flips it, with the protagonist refusing to be lulled into submission and instead taking control of the dream realm. The whole thing was created spontaneously, the instrumental built in hours and the intro freestyled in one take, and it pulses with wonderfully unnerving numerological significance without ever tipping into academic exercise.
JESUS THE APOLLO is a Manchester artist whose horror and sci-fi inspired live show The Martian: Live debuted at The Eagle Inn in 2024 to praise as a multimedia feast. Amazing Radio’s Mark Ryan called HUSH HUSH! dark and wonderful, which feels about right, and the lucid dream edition leans further into the atmosphere. That blend of theatre, avant-garde production is what makes him a very exciting prospect. We absolutely love this.
Gino V. – Taking Planes
Gino V.’s Taking Planes is a true story about going the distance for connection, late-night drives, early flights and no sleep, wrapped in a stunning 2000s R&B package
Taking Planes tells a very specific true story, finishing a casino gig at 1am, driving three hours to New Orleans, and catching a 7am flight to Philadelphia without sleeping, all to meet someone special. The production bridges classic 2000s hip-hop and R&B with modern sensibilities, and Gino V. himself describes the feel as a cool night ride with the windows down on a Friday. It’s produced like a dream, and vibes along gloriously.
Gino V. is from Lafayette, Louisiana, and he is a drummer, singer, rapper, writer and producer who does the whole thing himself rather than leaning on a team. That multi-instrumental instinct shows in how the record is arranged, with space for the drums to breathe and room for the vocal to sit forward without getting buried. Taking Planes is the kind of single that makes you want to hear the rest of whatever project it sits on. Essential stuff.
X.A.E. – Take 5
X.A.E.’s Take 5 is a self-affirmation anthem built from lived adversity, direct, purposeful, and genuinely uplifting
Take 5 is described by Long Beach artist X.A.E. as the pivotal track on their upcoming album, the one that lifts everything and everyone up, and the song earns that framing. It is built as a direct address to anyone who has been knocked around and made it to the other side – we all know that feeling – with a chorus that asks you to pause and take stock of what you have already survived. Honestly, i think it hits cos it means something.
X.A.E.’s creative philosophy says most of it: you are who you are because of the journey you have been on and the obstacles you have been through, and you would not be here if you did not make it through. That kind of directness, turned outward as encouragement rather than used as a flex, is exactly what makes Take 5 land as a full-volume anthem instead of just a nice idea on paper, and it is why the track carries. A true bop.