It’s the beginning of summer, skin is exposed, and the urge to get up and move is growing. Enter skaiwater: a Nottingham artist, currently stationed in L.A., who’s breaking out of the web underground with a kinetic blend of blown-out bedroom rap, futuristic R&B, and electronic experimentation. Initial iterations were moody, subdued sketches in a similar vein to Travis Scott. But when skaiwater took production into their own hands, they started multiplying the tracks in the DAW, adding layers of detail and pent-up drama. “#miles” and “eyes,” experiments indebted to Jersey club, kept the style’s pounding drums and danceable rhythms but substituted the usual raunchy lyrics for heartfelt pleas to a love interest. These singles couldn’t be as easily categorized, melding frenzied dancefloor energy with intimate thoughts typically reserved for private conversation.
The imaginative tinkering culminates on skaiwater’s new album, #gigi. Primarily self-produced, it mashes together some of the decade’s most prevalent sounds into a crispy mix that plays like an amalgamation of SoundCloud likes. Beats venture all across the African diaspora; skaiwater makes excursions to chaotic Brazilian funk, Jamaican dancehall grooves, and the jittery litefeet that turns up NYC parks. Distorted bass and random EQ hijinks will terrorize your speaker. Vocal pitches fluctuate all over the place.
Taking inspiration from this many places at once can mean spreading yourself thin or bloating the final product. skaiwater makes it all work by never directly emulating specific genres, instead using them as jumping-off points. Their adventurous splices generate brand-new compounds: “real feel” grabs the skittering hi-hats and shattering 808s that accompanies the off-the-wall maximalism of a natecxo beat and lays them over a ’70s soul sample. On “richest girl alive,” Auto-Tuned emo wails find pockets of melody between funk-infused drum patterns. The PARTYNEXTDOOR-core serenade “princess” builds up a pillow of delicate acoustics before climaxing into Young Thug-esque ad-libs. On “run,” Milwaukee low-end claps and New Orleans bounce rhythms poke through skaiwater’s dejected vocals.
These engrossing sound beds shield a raw display of feelings. “wna torture me tn?”, a team-up with Atlanta rapper Karrahbooo, flirts with masochism: “Sacrifice me like a lamb,” skaiwater croons. “Box” sandwiches hints of obsession (“Prized possession, hang you up in my archive”) between Jersey-club bed squeaks. Confidence fuels the freeform Atlanta-sourced flows in “bleach” and “rain” as skaiwater cycles between admiration and disdain for a lover. Even Lil Nas X captures some of that suavity in his feature on “light!,” the album’s most radio-ready track and only song not produced by skaiwater: Producer 9lives’ glimmering synth piano leads the way for a streak of catchy, celebratory bars about an overdue breakup.
Those sighs of relief rarely last long. skaiwater surfs between moods and soundscapes at a moment’s notice, omnivorous in a way that’s reminiscent of a young Kanye West. Perpetually restless, #gigi mines the full spectrum of musical ideas percolating through the internet, sourcing niche ingredients for a meal that offers something for every taste. Sometimes the broad scope and fast pace swallows up the endearing quirks that define specific scenes. But more often, it feels like firing up a freshly jailbroken phone: a ticket to endless possibilities concealed just out of sight.