Stream: Pell, ‘Vacation (Whole Week)’ and ‘Vanilla Sky’

Andrew Veeder on August 11th, 2015

1

Twenty-two-year-old New Orleans rapper Pell, née Jared Pellerin, released his debut album “Floating While Dreaming” last year, and so far during 2015, he’s released a pair of remixes from it including G-Eazy and White Sea. If the last fortnight is any indication, he’s set to start his sophomore lap, dropping a pair of great new tracks while on tour with Kehlani. The first, “Vacation (Whole Week),” was produced by Playgroundz & Staccs, with a breezy boom-bap beat and melodic soulful hook, as Pell jumps all over it with lines like, “But I’mma close my eyelids / Mental sketching out an island / ‘Cause everything’s a breeze / When you in the window seat.” The latest, “Vanilla Sky,” was produced by Like Minds, and builds for a minute and a half with piano ambiance and Pell singing before the beat drops and he switches to rap effortlessly, like Kid Cudi but huskier, or like Chance the Rapper but less nasally, spitting gems such as, “Aware of my social status, like whites aware of my blackness / Slaving to get a piece, tell master to kiss my assets.” Pell has been working in the studio with TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek, and is expected to continue releasing more new music this fall.

||| Stream: “Vacation (Whole Week)” and “Vanilla Sky”