By sweeneykovar | May 4th, 2012
Though the name might evoke images of bearded men in sunglasses and trench-coats, ZZ Ward is actually a young songstress from the Pacific Northwest. Apparently, she grew up singing the blues and as a teen became enamored with hip hop, which means the genre has a heavy influence in her sound. Her ‘breakout’ mixtape has her belting out over Tyler, The Creator and Wiz Khalifa beats.
This track finds her sampling an older Freddie Gibbs cut featuring a Freddie Gibbs verse! So meta. It’s pretty difficult to not enjoy a track with a piano-organ combination, especially when punctuated by a verse by the Baby Faced Killa.
Ultimately though, this is not my particular cup of tea. I’m not too partial to singers that I feel sing AT me, and call it what you will, but I will always side-eye a fair-skinned and blue eyed “blues singer.” Check it out though, make up your own mind.