After building a lot of buzz in 2014 with his album Future Memoirs, fans were expecting another project from Allan Kingdom in 2015. Instead he surprised the world by appearing on Kanye West's Grammy-nominated single "All Day" and stirring up a new bit of hype for the Canadian rapper. Kicking off 2016, he decided to celebrate his birthday yesterday by releasing his brand new album Northern Lights for free.
The LP is light on features, but does have guest verses from a few other artists like Chronixx, Jared Evans, Dram and Gloss Gang.
Kingdom takes an unconventional approach to his song ordering, putting the intro as the second song and instead opening the album with the love song "The Ride."
Coming in at 14 tracks, it is easy to see why many have tabbed Kingdom as an artist to watch going forward and why Yeezy featured him on "All Day." The project sways back and forth between low-key jams and lo-fi, soothing tracks that touch on various elements of romance and love. He changes up his rapping style and tempo throughout Northern Lights to show some range.
How Kingdom will follow up this project in 2016 remains to be seen. He still waits on his two Grammy nods for "All Day," but with this new tape, the year is already off to a great start.
Stream Northern Lights on SoundCloud below and pick up your free copy via his website here.
Northern Lights Tracklist:
1. The Ride
2. The Forest (Intro)
3. Fabes feat. Chronixx
4. Monkey See
5. Hypocrite feat. Jared Evan
6. Northern Lights
7. Renovate feat. Dram
8. Believe
9. Believe
10. Disconnect
11. I Feel Ya
12. Interruption
13. Go Fish
14. Outta Pocket feat. Gloss Gang
