Confucius and Fresh confer on GloRilla’s growing popularity, check the pulse on Austin’s hip-hop scene, and predict the state of Drill music’s foreseeable future.
Geto Gala
Cilantro Boombox: “Best Shoes” (feat. Jake Lloyd)
It’s a new month. It’s new music Friday. And there’s a fresh collaboration out that’ll really spice up your playlists. One that marks the welcome return of Cilantro Boombox.
See, the genre-bonding octet formally entered the Austin scene a dozen years back with their eponymous debut and followed it up a half decade later with their 2017 sophomore full-length Shine. And while Cilantro Boombox did keep our pandemic-addled brains sane with three singles in 2020, the latest pulse we felt from them on streaming was last June’s “Little Sign”. Well, just in time for the release of Geto Gala’s first-ever full-length, Cilantro Boombox has teamed up with one half of Geto Gala and our July 2022 Artist of the Month, Jake Lloyd for another spicy standalone.
Yes, just a week ahead of a gig next Friday at the Sahara Lounge alongside DJ Chorizo Funk and Geto Gala, Cilantro Boombox laced up their coriander kicks with some upbeat pop on the Jake Lloyd collabo “Best Shoes”. Like a finely diced blend of Pharrell’s “Happy” and Janelle Monae’s “Tightrope” garnishing a full plate of hand claps, slick funk rock grooves, G Funk-inspired analogue synth bends, and soulful horn refrains, “Best Shoes” is made easily accessible for those who haven’t fully acclimated to a Latin/Pan-African palate.
We don’t personally think cilantro tastes like soap…but this track is squeaky clean and eager to scrub the dance floor.
Geto Gala: “Sumn’ to Say” (Live at Scholz Garten)
After years of supporting Deezie Brown and Jake Lloyd individually, it’s beautiful watching them both earn exponential exposure with this hip-hop/R&B phenomenon that is Geto Gala. The latest phase of a fruitful friendship, Brown and Lloyd had already shared a fair amount of stages together pre-pandemic before capitalizing on their bar-trading chemistry with their eponymous February 2021 studio debut. Alongside its delightfully-southern Chopped and Slowed counterpart, The Geto Gala EP probably played a part in Brown and Lloyd separately scoring their first official ACL Fest sets last October, where informal versions of the full Geto Gala band ended up backing each solo performer.
Between then and now, the Geto Gala gang’s apparently upped their game for a whole gauntlet of live gigs, at least based off the applause they garnered last Thursday morning when they transfigured our Scholz SXSW space into the Geto Garten. With a set that’d make Big Pokey proud, and a crowd that was happy to “fifth wheel” alongside the band, Geto Gala sure as hell had “Sumn’ to Say” at SXSW. We’re just hoping our invitation’s still good for the next Gala.