stream Robert Glasper’s ‘Fuck Yo Feelings’ mixtape ft. Denzel Curry, Rapsody, Mick Jenkins, more
Robert Glasper's Blue Note Jazz Club residency starts tonight (10/3), beginning with a four-night run of shows featuring rap legend Yasiin Bey (fka Mos Def). Glasper said he'd be releasing the new Fuck Yo Feelings mixtape this Friday in conjunction with the residency, but it looks like he decided to drop the whole thing one day early.
The line between "mixtape" and "album" tends to blur these days, but "mixtape" is the perfect word for Fuck Yo Feelings, which truly feels more like a collection of songs than a start-to-finish cohesive album, and Robert Glasper is known for making very cohesive albums. He's also been known for years for merging the worlds of hip hop and jazz, and this mixtape does that more explicitly than he ever has before. It features an amazing cast of rappers who all work well with jazzy backdrops, including the aforementioned Mos Def as well as newer rappers like Denzel Curry, Rapsody, Mick Jenkins, Buddy, and YBN Cordae, plus hip hop-friendly soul singers like Bilal, SiR, Andra Day, and YEBBA. It's also got contributions from jazz legend Herbie Hancock, and from Glasper's R+R=NOW bandmate Terrace Martin, who has played a major role in shaping Kendrick Lamar's sound. Glasper's warm, laid-back instrumentals have always sounded like they were itching to be rapped over, so it's a real treat to see him release a project that's so heavy on rappers whose bars fit into the pocket of Glasper's arrangements. The mixtape is mostly front-loaded with the rap portion, and it gets more traditionally jazz at the end (though there's some rap in the second half too). The whole thing is worth hearing, whether you're coming to it as a jazz fan, a rap fan, or both. Check it out below.
After the run of shows with Yasiin Bey, Glasper's Blue Note residency includes shows with Esperanza Spalding, a J Dilla tribute with Dilla’s former Slum Village groupmate T3, and more. Schedule and tickets here.
Glasper also released this accompanying documentary earlier this week: