Ronnue

Soft decadent bands of melodicism flank a homespun beat in Ronnue’s “In Love,” one of the dozen tracks that can be found on his new album, the explosive Introduction 2 Retro-Funk- which has been setting the hip-hop underground on fire since the day it was first released this summer – but its clandestine grooves are as essential a listening experience in this LP as the Figuz-featured “Why” is. The beats get a little bigger in “Something About U (The Retro-Funk Mix),” a bit more mischievous in “Give in 2 Me,” and all-out abrasive in the dance anthem “If We Stayed 2gether.” Ronnue isn’t scared of a little creative experimentation in “Be Your Freak,” nor does he shy away from allusive indulgence in “I’m a Lesbian.” Whether he’s jamming with Roc Phizzle and Soultry in “Do It (The Remix)” or pumping out his own percussive thrusts in “You Tried Me (The Man’s Anthem),” there’s one thing that he makes perfectly clear to all listening on this album, and it’s that he’s not going to be content until he has all of America shaking to a funky beat this season. 

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/ronnue?lang=en 

Instead of bringing in a lot of different collaborators, this record is all about Ronnue and Ronnue alone. Figuz, Roc Phizzle and Soultry all drop in for brief guest appearances, but even in the tracks that they are featured in, they never manage to eclipse the presence of the leading man in this lavish LP. Ronnue wants us to get to know him onIntroduction 2 Retro-Funk, and whether he’s clowning us in “Bathroom vs Studio” or giving us the straight truth in “In Love” and “Be Your Freak,” he never uses the skyscraper-sized beats as coverage to hide himself behind. He’s got everything out on the table for us in “17 Days (The Hood Mix),” “If We Stayed 2gether” and “Give in 2 Me,” and even when his play is coming close to throwback territory, he doesn’t turn back and try to save face with an artificial varnish – he goes head-on into funk-worship mode, and in embracing his forerunners’ influence ends up making his own music all the more relatable to us. Brash, unconventional, unapologetically retro and undeniably original, Introduction 2 Retro-Funk presents us with a hip-hop equivalent of the unbowed punk rock mentality that built the most famous era in Ronnue’s legendary Seattle scene, and even though he’s not fronting a loud, atonal DIY band, he’s embodying the very ethos that once transformed a little-known group from Aberdeen into the biggest band in the world.

GOOGLE PLAY: https://play.google.com/music/preview/B3toqp6tat6q6r65zrwciilskbu?play=1&u=0

Everything here has Ronnue’s fingerprints on it, and although no one artist can make every listener happy, he’s got a sound that even the un-funky among us can get into. I’m really pleased with what all of these songs have to offer us, and I think that aside from seeing him live and in-person, this is about the best way that audiences can come to understand the man, the musician and the aesthetical mastermind that is Ronnue. If his latest record isn’t already on your shelf, I would recommend acquiring it as soon as possible.

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Trace Whittaker

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

8/2019