Nelle Slim’s Yourz Truly out now!
Wonder what No Choice Music Group’s latest artist Nelle $lim is bringing to the scene?
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“How am I going to be introduced to the artist” is always on my mind when pressing Play on a brand new album from a hot new artist. I noticed the first 3 tracks of this album go intro, skit, song track, so – I think to myself – Executive Producer Sleepy Wonder is going to give us a couple little samples, a few tastes of his new find Nelle before giving us the whole experience with the first full song. An interesting start no doubt. Known to deliver gold, ol’ Sleeps I’m sure has gone right again here. So let’s see:
The album starts with a light and refreshing piano melody, an Intro which moves into a beautifully slow beat. Knowing it will be a minute before we truly hear her vocals in full form Nelle doesn’t hide from the opportunity to jump right in on the track here. “When I was a little girl I wanted to sing. I wanted to sing everyday. Singing took away my pain. I wanted to sing.” BAM. Nailed it. I’ve never heard a better opener from an artist on my first introduction.
The piano keys step along with the slow steady beat and take you into a better mood, a higher place, and a more alert state of mind. I’m ready for this album…
“I always wanted to sing. Now I’m doing my thing.”
What an intro to what we need to know about Nelle Slim.
After a strong intro we regress into what sounds like an unmastered, raw segue on track 2, the Phone call skit. As a listener you catch yourself hearing the artist at home or maybe even finished in the studio after a long week, and showing the personal side behind the production. Our heroine is reaching out to see who’s catching tonight. She’s looking to get up with her girls and go out. What I know is going to be a contrast to the following song, the skit acts as a fiendish appetizer to the first full track to appear on this project.
Slip Away feels like dreaming in club land. A brilliantly produced darker vibe with a late night club feel in a place far away from the skit we just heard. Like going from day to night, or reality to fantasy, Slip Away sets it off.
I don’t think anyone is going to hear the opening pizzicato harp and not give this song full attention. “I want to slip away before the lights come on, yeah. Nobody knows what we ‘bout to do.”
Remember this is our first full meeting with Nelle, so as if to put it all out there later in the track after the second chorus we get a few bars spit from Nelle just to let us know this girl can flow as well as ride on a melody. A danceable going-out song, I can picture the video for this one being amazing to watch as Nelle shows us what Friday night looks like.
Grind is a bit more aggressive. Grind is haunting, bassy. After a brief minute the beat develops into a heavy but moving, looming feel that makes you want to turn it up. I’m not sure if I’m nodding my head because I love the song or if I subconsciously wish I could get it to go louder.
Grind is direct, with a hard working beat behind it. “My name is Nelle Slim I’m about my money. I grind all the time.” That’s the sound of the meaning, or is it the meaning of the sound?
Killer, this one is.
Boy Boo sets off right. I love the electronic tones and the slow violin. The producer dipped his brush and painted something nice with this one. We get a few seconds of taste and then they bring it in. Ever surprising, every well crafted is the music saturating any NCMG release. Brandi Edwards adds her gift to this track stringing vocals and harmony along her path. An electric guitar shows up subtly in the background and you fall deeper into the song. I love an artist like Nelle because there’s nothing I like more than music where I get melodic song lines, and then a nice flow too. A high point of this song is the harmonic chorus that is spread over an incredible beat. This one wins it for me so far and makes me more excited to keep moving forward.
Do Me This Way stomps onto the scene. Nelle sings in a heartfelt narrative over a man who’s done her wrong. The beat is dynamic and developing as always. It steps steadily, then deconstructs. It breaks down and returns. Sleepy Wonder himself blesses the track with some vocal accents as well.
Another winner with this one.
How Could You is a throwback to summer. It’s full of bright tones and an easy feel. I close my eyes and feel sunshine. Smokin Dro Frazier appears after a brief intro from our songstress. The two compliment each other over verses and vocals, often with Frazier rhyming to the beat with Nelle providing a musical backdrop at the same time. The layers work well with this one. Dro drops a good verse that goes with the vibe of not only the song, but the album. I like him talking about treating his girl well and appreciate that his voice doesn’t steal the show but instead fits into the music as an instrument. This one’s easy to feel.
Next is another short skit. HipHop artistry brought the theatrical and reoccurring notion of skit work on records, one that I’ve noticed has gone missing over these past years.
This skit is a non-essential addition to the album, but again I like that it takes this highly produced professional album back to a personal situation.
Right away, Friday jumps to be a contender for my favorite track on the album, though it would be hard to actually choose. We all love that “It’s Friday, I just got paid, I’m gonna have fun tonight” feeling.
Once again production master Sleepy Wonder makes heads nod along to a good time. I find it interesting whenever a good party song is crafted from a smooth beat and mid-tempo rhythm. It’s easy to blast the timing into the stratosphere and end up in a hyper situation when your intent is to give someone a “time to party” track, but here we have a “getting in the car, going out to the club” anthem. Kush appears later in the track adding flavor. Friday is a song that I’d like to hear again and again.
The Slip Away (European remix) is a good bonus to this album. A slow build from a place of R&B into a brooding electronic sound scape and arriving into a late hours club beat – a grand reimagining of a featured song of the album and a good note to go out on.
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Nelle Slim is a great addition to the No Choice Music Group’s growing catalogue of talent. What I’m starting to know more clearly is how the NCMG artists ended up in music. With these incredible and natural gifts, sense of style, rhythm, and burning to create songs they had no choice but to end up here and now, in this industry, in this profession, making powerful music. I expect we’ll continue to see NCMG grow in quality nd magnitude as their musical paths carry them onward into an increasingly bright future.
Nelle’s first album on NCMG is nothing to be over looked but something to look over again and again. The tracks and skits are a day in the life of an artist thirsting to sing.
She makes you hungry for music. I don’t know how No Choice Music Group can so consistently find artists with such passion.
Nelle’s album is one that bring a number of different experiences with a backdrop of consistent, top-notch production and brilliant sound imagery. Nelle’s gift as a vocalist and lyricist shine over the entirety of the album. She and Sleepy Wonder execute this project very well. They should both be outwardly and unapologetically proud of this art they produce. The sonic compositions here are as always fresh. As a listener, paying close attention means reaping greater reward as they change, drop-off, develop, deconstruct, and return to original programming.
I look forward to what No Choice Music Group has in store for us in the future. I have no doubt they will, with proper timing, attract the attention of other like-minded artists who will make their own beautiful additions to this large musical project that is NCMG. Maybe one day we’ll even have a label album featuring the combined work and imagination of the label’s artists. There’s reason for excitement and anticipation for anything this group may later bring to us.
But as for now, Nelle $lim’s charging up the scene with something sweet. Catch it while it’s hot.
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No Choice Music Group
Review: Yourz Truly
No Choice Music Group ASCAP BMG Chrysalis US
Sleepy Wonder featured on track #6 Do Me This Way.
Will Hockaday
woppaday@gmail.com
MonuMental 
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