Greentea Peng – Tell Dem It’s Sunny

Greentea Peng's newest album, Tell Dem it’s Sunny, is a striking fusion of psychedelic rap and R'n'B. Peng balances otherworldly soundscapes with lyrics that bleed with vulnerability; on My Neck the South East London artist sings: ‘I need to sing and dance, yes, make some love / I want to scream, but I ain’t wild enough / I have been locked up… for quite some time / Found myself drowning in waters that aren’t mine’. The song features a guest turn from South London musician Wu-Lu, and like many other tracks on the album, gritty reverbs coalesce with drifting vocals as Peng expresses feelings of suppression and entrapment.

But Peng’s lyrics are not solely angsty. They are often concerned with closure, as on Green: ‘I know you want to run, I know you do / But there’s no other way than straight through / Oh, in this life a lot of suffering / But in the end that’s why it shapes you’. Distortion is a trait characteristic of the record and its grungy take on psychedelic rap. While wordy at times – lyrics can disturb a song’s rhythm – it feels somewhat in keeping with Peng’s signature arrangements which embrace fluidity and help her articulate “the self-political” and “this patchwork called life.”

Listen to: Nowhere Man, Stones Throw, Green, Whatcha Mean