Young MC/beat maker Obi Von, once based in Dubai and now ever so existential in London, placed these scrap beats out for public ears and I died a thousand deaths. Good deaths. I’m going to start by describing these scrap beats as syrupy. Yes syrupy. Theres a complete richness that comes with these scraps, a richness that comes with maple syrup.

There’s a layering of thought and emotion which are a series of things that the universe has bestowed upon us to be human. In return, people like Obi Von (Timothy Vaughn) flings back at the universe’s general direction. He comes baring enchanted gifts of sound that seem to be a profound collaboration between the mind and the heart. I’m sorry for sounding like stinky cheese here (if ever stinky cheese were to make a sound), but this hip hop MC/beat maker encompasses the very action of “feeling” as opposed to other contemporary drone-like beat makers i’ve been listening to lately.

I was in my car blasting this whole playlist and I was taken into a whole other world of goodness. It became my goodness. Summer’s heat is in town, I didn’t even give the heat the time of day because of the fuck I didn’t give when his music was playing. My windows were wide open and it felt as if Obi Von’s composed pieces fabricated a breeze in my car. “Scrap 3” definitely takes the cake for me. He has a very unorthodox method of beat creation in this track which made me feel like he might have been inspired by Delia Derbyshire, one of the founding mothers of electronic music back in the 50’s.

I don’t know, I would describe it as quirky, unearthly hip hop. It’s not very grounded at all which is so refreshing because a lot of the other hip hop I listen to is very much about being grounded. Von’s scraps just made their way into my room and sat themselves into my life that day and today and tomorrow and still reverberate in low resonance from yesterday. They are melancholic, romantic, non-sensical and down right beautiful.

-Aya Atoui-

Aya Atoui is a fantastic photographer - we featured her a while back and if you haven’t already, you must take a second to check out some of her stuff.