Raheem Bakare: 'Sexy R&B' and storytelling via an 'anthology of love songs' - EP12

0:00You've got the laptop on the lap, ready to go, ready to spit some facts at me. So who have we got? Today's spotlight artist is Raheem Bakare. This is for fans of people who might like Jack James. Okay, yeah. Who might like Koji Radical, Gideon and Brent Fyance. Okay, yeah, I hear it. I would add temps into there as well. Oh, interesting.

0:30Hello, hello. We're back again. Really? Yes, I'm doing it, man. I'm doing it. I'm trying to do the NPR smooth thing. We're back again. Hello. Here again. And we're going to kick off straight off the bat, right? Yeah. We're going to do Vinyl of the Week. You've been hiding your vinyl since we've been setting up for some reason. So you want me to be very surprised. I'm very intrigued of what it is. What's the Vinyl of the Week? What have we got? All right. Well, it's a giveaway, which is why I was trying to hide it. But it's a special edition. Okay. This, yeah. I've been waiting on this one. I've been waiting on this one.

1:02I see you having a peek. I see what it is. I see. But you're not ready for this. Okay, go on. All right. So this week's Vine of the Week is... Oh, that's crazy. That's crazy, isn't it? So this is 50 Cent, Get Rich or Die, Trine, of course. So what you see here is a limited edition vinyl. This is the Marvel edition. Right. So as you can see, 50 is in the Iron Man suit. Yeah, yeah. I mean... I can give it to you because this is, oh, whoops. This is a lenticular little situation as well. The angle that I see it in, it's just, yeah, it's very, very, very interesting. Okay. Have you got a little story behind this?

1:44What's going on? What's the crack? What's the crack? You know I'm a sucker for a novelty situation. So when I saw this, I knew I had to have it. Because, yeah, I mean, obviously this is an iconic album. Like 50s debut album, probably. one could argue this is one of the best debut hip-hop albums ever and I thought this was a very iconic way to have it, I thought there's no point just having the original version because, come on we can do better now so I had to get my hands on this one it says Invincible here which feels like a bit of a nod to 50 of course, man's been shot multiple times as is represented in the original artwork as well um so this depiction of it i really really like um the reverse is kind of the same as you would see but obviously this comes with bells and whistles as well so this was a 2018 release i believe okay original album came out 2003 again nice little like post well i say little post 15 years 15 years later um but let me show you some of the reasons why i like this so on the we've got um little poster on the inside track list credits etc i'll hand you that um there's a lot of paraphernalia here we also have this um a little little marvel magazine which is which is very clean that's that as well i'll hand you that and of course the people already know but i like a color a color variant and of course Iron Man being read only is right This is on translucent Red vinyl Obviously a 2 LP And sort of on the sticker you can kind of see Like It's got like a target You know if you go to a shooting range It's got like the bullseye targeting It's got like bullet holes there But yeah I just thought this was a cool Sort of novelty situation Of a very very iconic album Which is why I kind of wanted to hide it because i thought if you see the back of it you could go like well yeah where this is going i want it to be a little surprised um so yeah for anyone who may not be aware if you haven't i don't know what we're doing here um this has got some of his like biggest hits on it which is insane for a debut album so uh we've got what gangsta we've got many men in the club if i can't pimp 21 questions just this album is not a joke it's insane it's not a joke um And I actually had the privilege of seeing him do like, what did he call it?

4:20I think he called it like the last run sort of tour or something at the O2. Okay. Maybe two years ago. And he's just got hit after hit and it's just silly. So yeah, man, this is my, this is my bind of the week. Exec producers, Dr. Dre and Eminem. So it's just, it's just silly. and it's silly and it's one of the great rap albums or yeah soundtrack to 2000s hip-hop really in it pretty much it was i was like we were young but i still remember when it came out and that's that's how big it was like little children were we're bumping it like it's crazy literally uh just so something on this i've just seen that they've got um like different marvel covers as well for other artists as well so they've got uh ll cool j Mama said knock you out Kid Cudi Man on the Moon 2 And Gizzler Liquid Swords Which was pretty cool as well So And that's the Gizzler And that's the one So yeah Fair news Fair news That's yeah very cool man So how did you get your hands on this Like did you see it That it was available And then Or did it It just came across Did it just come across that table Just came across my lap And I said hello And I had to have it I had to have it It's alright for some minutes like for some yeah i didn't even realize this was a thing to be fair so yeah very good very it's pretty cool in it like yeah i do feel like sometimes these things can feel a touch gimmicky but i thought this is quite cool because it's um yeah it's it's unique it's clearly that the lenticular thing adds a bit of a yeah this adds a bit of a pizzazz to it should we say yeah and it's on brand to the 50 cent that's the persona right if it was like i don't know i'd say superman you'd be like yeah not too sure yeah but this feels a bit yeah just feels pretty cool so yeah that is my vinyl of the week very very impressive bro I'm pleased with that like solid album musically and you've got the the knickknacks with it so you've done you've done both columns so yeah good job and it's not new as well normally I'm like well this came out 2025 yeah yeah man man's throwing it back I mean he's still in this century but he's throwing it back he's throwing it back regardless so yeah good job good job thank you cool man cool man you uh good anyways everything everything's happening You've been traveling again, probably But we'll get into that anyways We'll get into that I just want to get into the music today I don't want to hear You're good Yeah, I'm good How are you?

6:45You're good, I'm good And what's going to make me feel better is Learn what you've been listening to recently Okay, great Well, let's do it So let's jump into it I'm confident Yeah? Yeah Okay, we'll see You're going to love this Okay, let's go Alright, recent rotations We're going to talk about some of the tunes We've been listening to in the past week Do you want me to go first? Do you want to go first? I would love for you to go first. No, I want you to go first. Oh, you do? I like to finish off, so I want you to go first. Okay, okay, great, great. Guy's trying to take all the glory at the end.

7:15Yeah, it gives you space to ramble on at the end, you know? Now I'm cutting you off. Alright, let's do it. Cool. Recent rotations, three each. My first today is an artist called Makinde. That's M-A-K-I-N-D-E with an accent. Okay. The track is called Head Down Nowhere and is taken from his EP, which is currently called State of Affairs. And this is an ever evolving EP. Basically, he adds a track to it, changes the title and changes the artwork. Oh, very cool. Which I quite like as a visual development and way. Because I was like, I looked at it and I was like, this guy's released three EPs in like two months.

7:56And then I was like, oh, OK, we're adding songs. But this one, Head Down Nowhere, came out February 2026. McKinde, he's a new artist from New York. Two key inspirations is Music Soulchild and Michael Jackson. His favorite genre is neo-soul, which definitely comes through in his music. Albeit, I wouldn't say he's a neo-soul artist. He's just a very good artist. He loves musicality and loves songwriting. He produces his own music. He edits some of his own visuals as well. Not just like social bits, but more like what you would call, I guess, like premium content as well. just an overall very cold creative very much knows what he's trying to do and how he wants it to be executed when it comes to the aesthetic I'd say it's very clean he's got high quality visuals however they're placed like in plain sight I would say so it feels quite quite grounded and I would describe it as like elevated every day so it feels quite relatable and quite accessible for people coming across it and you can see sort of like familiar spots in New York if you're sort are from there and stuff he currently has 300 monthly listeners on spotify okay so we're early boys beginning of the journey here but this one head down nowhere he's going places okay and the rest of the music is very good as well but yeah kind of hard to describe other than very good very musical obviously got r &b inspirations neo soul inspirations um and he is just a great artist so yeah for someone so early mckinde watch out okay mckinde like that's a very cool concept i i'd say like because one it means that people that are are like tapped in are like eager to see the journey but then two the same way that you've seen it like you've said oh that's another thing for me to listen to there's another thing but it is the same thing so that gets his numbers up for like the same tunes and then it gets people like new people on as well so i'm here for it yeah check it check it that's a cool concept i'm here mckinney let's go okay my number two my number two flipping out what am i doing let me get let me get my get you in the game labs let me go back my first uh recent rotation yeah i'm gonna keep this one short snappy okay yeah so my first recent rotation is uh nebu and the song is called blindsided this came out in march and And yeah, I don't really know too much about this artist.

10:24I'm not going to lie to you. I think he's just kind of an underground R &B artist. I tried to see if there's a bio or interview somewhere. I couldn't find anything. I'm not going to lie to you. I couldn't find anything. So the song Blindsided, I really like it. And I think you'll really like it. And I think everyone will really like it. Because the production is cult. like the drum selection in it like the kick drum that they have knocking knocking bro the like sample there's like a sample in the back and it's like reversed and kind of like chopped a little bit like oh okay like this is uh yeah this is interesting yeah and then his vocals are very like trap soul adjacent like and it's so it's like a proper r &b okay it's like a proper r &b tuner and yeah vocally he's really good um the flow is crazy and that's all i have to say bro it's just a big it's a it's a bang yeah it's a bang i'm gonna lie so i i picked i found him through like when we do our weekly posts of new tunes come out yeah that was one of mine and i i kept it for myself i was greedy i was like i don't want the people to know this but i've come to my senses and i've realized you know what maybe i'll bring him into this segment so we can talk about him and like hopefully more people can learn about him um yeah so yeah nebu blind i love a good kick drum and i love a good sample so this is what i'm saying i'm gonna have to check it out blindsided yeah blindsided okay cool let's do it my second recent rotation of the day is arden that's uh capitalized a-r-d-n um it's a tune called retail therapy uh with an artist called ferina which is f e accent r-i-n-a um this came out in october 2025 um yeah r &b tune essentially has a good bounce to it there's strings in it and when i heard the strings i was like cool we're doing something different here that was something that i guess piqued my interest sonically um because yeah it just made it made it stand out um so this one is produced by tyler bandit and Hugo, who have both worked with Brent Fires, which you can definitely hear in the production of this record as well.

12:48Because, yeah, when I first heard it, I was like, this is kind of Brenty, and then I looked at the credits, and I was like, okay. Oh, right. Also co-produced by Dylan Hyde, who's worked with a lot of rappers, and also co-produced the AP Go Crazy track that I mentioned a couple, well, earlier bit of our episodes. Shout out to AP Go Crazy. so yeah obviously three of them on the beat which explains why he's quite so advanced but yeah overall retail therapy this is a smooth groove from the canadian artist who says he's inspired by j cole smino and anderson pack primarily so yeah you can understand why with all the influences and all the collaborators this one here is a big tune yeah odd goes in i think he's got like a ep or something that's out or came out recently but don't hold me to that but yeah he he's he's cold he's cold well he's cold so yeah very very good pick you're you're doing very well today you're doing very well i appreciate it okay i'm putting pressure on me all right number my number two yeah recent rotation uh i was scared about this one because i thought you were going to pick this one because i've seen on our instagram this these artists okay pop up a few times so my second recent rotation of the day is maiden lane uh bus stop is the song so yeah have you this is news to me bro good good good so uh yeah maiden lane is a aussie duo um max and eden and so they put it together to make maiden they're like very young i think they're well spotify says they're like 17 and 19 respectively so like they're yeah early uh they met in high school it's a it's a singer and producer and they both kind of write the songs together yes and i guess you would call it old jazz soul pop i would say group and yeah they're cold bro so eden um is the girl she's like the singer vocals clean bro clean clean um and it's like the songs that they do they've actually um the song bust off is from their ep maiden lane um and all their songs are like very musical with like heavy on chords um vocally there's a lot of like vocal layering similar to like almost like um jacob collier kind of layering like some of the some of the videos that they've done on their socials is just like um them making the song there and you can see her like layering the vocals harmonizing and then they just go straight into the beat and you're like this is this is cold um so yeah uh some of the artists that they said they kind of want to collaborate with the future obviously this is kind of more aspirational is like thundercat and like erica and these types so they got that like funk new soul kind of inspirations and yes it's just very very good bro like listen to it i think we're early to the party as well okay nice because obviously they're super young this is their first project they're still kind of like releasing snippets of songs for future releases as well but everything's just funky soul super clean so yeah give it a go Maiden Lane song is bus stop damn very cool well done yeah I feel like to be to have those influences that you're citing and then also to be doing like vocal layering and stuff at a young age like it sounds very mature they've been brought up in and around music been doing this for a while yeah and it's just like good vibes it's good like soulful vibes and stuff so yeah give it give it a listen to shout out to Aussie duo big em up man big em up that's sick down under nice All right.

16:42My third recent rotation of the day. You're going to love this. Okay. Taking it back. Oh, my God. What's going on? I know. Stealing my thunder. What's happening? So the artist is Evelyn Champagne King. Okay. What the hell is that? Yeah. Wait, hold on. Where the hell is this going from, bro? What tune? What tune is it? Tune is I'm in love. Oh, my God. Where? What's happening here? All right. So I heard this at a new listening bar in New York. And yeah, it's like a cocktail bar. They've got a very, very clean sound system in there to the point that on the menu, you've got the cocktails and then you flip the page.

17:27And it's also got a breakdown of all of the equipment they've got in the place. Oh, flip it out. For like all the speakers, the cabinets, the amps. Oh, snap out. Bro, this is serious stuff. so when i heard this in there i said what's going on yeah because the way that it was hitting obviously you know the tune but the way the keys were coming through the way everything was slapping on the system it was evelyn bro it was it was very very good so a bit about the tune um this is 1981 and this was a number one hit on both the u.s soul and the u.s dance charts okay produced by maurie brown who also produced her most famous song um love come down that's the word

18:15and so therefore like has has a similar feel sonically if you're unfamiliar with the tune um but yeah i would describe it as like funk soul disco and just feel good in it it's feel it made me feel good when i heard it especially on that system i said i would like at some point in my life to have this kind of musical setup in my environment. So, yeah, that's my third. Wow, that's taking my surprise, bro. I'm not going to lie. I'm impressed. I'm impressed. It's taking you to go to New York to listen to the Christmas sound system to throw it back. But you're throwing it back regardless. I'm happy, man.

18:50That's a good one, man. I thought you'd appreciate it. Yeah, it's crazy. It's crazy. All right, fair. um my third i will also be thrown back i'll be thrown back so my third recent rotation um of the day is we're going back to 1971 uh jill scott heron save the children is what i've gone for here um so this is from his kind of i guess his most popular and kind of critically acclaimed album pieces of a man do you know about joe scott heron so this is he's basically kind of the one of the godfathers of rap essentially because he was a street poet um and he kind of uh spoke about like a lot of political commentary and like social justice and all this type of type of stuff he's got a song called like whitey on the moon which is basically a commentary about kind of the u.s government's funding of like nasa and against like all the problems that are happening on ground essentially so and obviously obviously they've got this man up again so similar complaints things that things don't change like 50 years on kind of vibe um and his most popular song is uh the revolution will not be televised which is also in this so that's a famous saying right it's like a super famous poem as well by him um which is about essentially kind of getting up and being the change rather than just sitting back and watching it all happen so and he's inspired like lots of lots of lots of rappers all the all the like social and like backpack rappers and like common and talib khali and like kendrick and all these people they've all been inspired by him he's kind of like the source almost right so he's just the guy he's the guy uh but i've chosen save save the children because it's kind of more of an optimistic uh tune i would say uh a lot of his songs are kind of more kind of condemning and criticizing the way things are and saying that we need to change yeah and this one's kind of like a it's more optimistic and kind of emphasizes kind of the importance of the next generation and how we need to nurture them and stuff so i just thought was quite cool uh a little bit else about about this is more this is more about the artist than just this song as well so um he's passed away now uh but his last album that he did uh like the year before he died uh was was called i'm new here and it was done through um excel records okay um and basically the year after that released the uh label head richard russell who we've mentioned he does like everything is recorded and stuff like that basically he produced the album with jill scott heron and then he went to jamie x sets who was also on the label yeah and it was under young turks at the time and said i want you to remix this album and make it into this like dubstep yeah kind of electro inspired thing and obviously jamie x is like jill scott heron's the guy well of course i'm gonna do that and this is before he's even released his own album so he was on jamie xx was on the xx yeah and doing stuff with them but he hadn't released his own album sure okay interesting um so he remixed it and so it went from i'm new here to we're new here and one of the songs i'm not going off but but this is gonna land somewhere this is somewhere one of the songs uh is uh take care of you which is the sample in uh big tune drake rihanna take care in a roundabout way so jill scott heron is in in that so i just thought that was quite cool wasn't it he's quite mad so he's gone from 1971 all the way up to what was that 2011 popping off and take care in that so you can hear his vocals you know at the end of the song when it goes oh no that's Jill Scott Heron that's his vocals but the melodies basically all taken from the Jamie XX oh interesting I didn't know that yeah so if you go back to the if you listen to the Jamie XX one it's like the take care melody but with Jill Scott Heron singing the chorus so there you go and that for me is like music evolving and sampling done really well i would say because sometimes it's just very obvious it's probably the wrong the wrong word but sometimes it can feel very lazy you know yeah exactly we're just gonna take exactly that and like pitch up yeah yeah exactly sure but okay sick yeah those are some fun facts one more fact one more fact goodness okay so one more jamie xx actually didn't meet jill scott harron but he like had to write him letters and kind of send him the music and then jill scott harron would write back and be like i'm mad i approve of this this is cool like can you change this little bit here yeah so they didn't meet during the production but like they still collaborated which i found quite cool so yeah that's it that is cool very nice very nice i've done so that's my three solid picks all right man so let's get into the spotlight artist i'm eager to hear who you're going to be talking about today spotlight artists it's that time of the day where we talk about one artist maybe potentially one project and then see if there's any conversations around it so it's your turn to do the research you've got the laptop on the lap ready to go ready to spit some facts at me so who have we got that is right uh so today's spotlight artist is raheem bakari okay okay that's right and honorable mention to lvn in this instance as well the reason we are discussing this duo today um is because raheem bakari's got a new album out called Sink or Swim and this is in collaboration with LVN as well.

24:58So they describe the collaborative album as an anthology of love songs and sexy R &B. Bringing sexy R &B back I hear it. We love a sexy R &B. So the pair they wrote, produced, mixed and mastered all 19 tracks between the two of them which I think is impressive and speaks to the artistry that we are dealing with. and so I guess the first question is we've got two artists what's the what's the difference and what's the vibe so Rahim is the main performer uh meanwhile LVN is the main producer okay essentially how this partnership okay okay that that clarifies a lot of me that was my first question so yeah that makes sense okay so Rahim is a South London singer-songwriter and producer who professes to make sensual R &B, Afro soul, alternative soul and also incorporates some cinematic storytelling through the lyrics.

25:53Okay. There are some like sort of skit bits in there that help, I guess, with the narrative of the journey of it. Now, he has previously worked with music and visual arts production for Sky Arts, BET and MTV. Oh, okay. Which I feel like partly explains his ability to storytell through music, but also why his mind kind of goes this way when it comes to the creative output of it, which I thought was quite cool. Even if he hasn't intentionally used them as inspirations, you see it all around you, I guess. Yeah, it must be so sub-punches. Yeah, it naturally gets absorbed. He's also 10 years deep in making music, over 10 years deep.

26:32So he spent time honing his craft, which I feel like you can kind of tell in this project. This is the first year I've discovered him, so I've missed a whole chunk, but we're here now. That's the main thing. That's the main thing. Exactly. So to speak to that and the sort of, I guess, the development of him, he's experimenting with different sounds over the years, including putting a few videos on GRM Daily, as I feel like every artist did in the sort of like 2015 to 2020, maybe even preceding that as well. And it feels like he's really found his sound now in his most authentic and artistic way in a time where I would say that sub-genre phases in UK black music feel like a bit less of a thing than they have been in like eras gone by.

27:23I would say, especially in the times that we've lived through, we've gone through the likes of grime, like UK funky, afro swing, drill. And I feel like now it's a bit more, well, social media democratize things a lot more. And I feel like, you know, there are people like Jim Legacy and artists in that vein who have very much allowed it both like knock down doors and allowed expression to be a lot freer and not necessarily confined to genre pockets I would say and so yeah that kind of contextualizes why you might hear different sounds that he's made and some of the stuff on GRM is very different to what he's um he's done now and he's just experimenting with different stuff um now to your point I also wasn't consciously aware of him before this album um but i came across it and personally was immediately struck by the artwork yeah um which was my you came across it via me by the way just let's clarify that really yeah i chose wait we we posted him uh their project on our page yeah it was from i was my suggestion it was my suggestion are you sure 100 i don't think so 100 that's not how i 100 % 100 % That was me It was me I don't know We'll check We'll check But I don't know It was me bro Might have to get a VAR On that It was me And I put up the list And then Yeah But as you said Yeah That's how I Discovered them as well Was the artwork I was like Ooh It's just a bit It's a bit of love Obviously the water And stuff It's like It feels a bit Like it could be soulful here Yeah It like Alludes to a lot Even though the image itself Isn't doing like there's not there's not too much there just water and two people but um yeah that's how i

29:17let's revisit that offline yeah but getting into the artwork obviously you've alluded to it it's a it's a photo of a couple embracing the shoulder deep in what i'm assuming is the ocean anyhow it's a form of water so a vast body of water yeah um the photo is taken from behind the man so you only like see the back of his head um and you see like the woman's hands wrapped around him in an embrace um to me yeah when i saw that it felt like high quality it felt warm uh but also had a depth to it and felt like mysterious i was intrigued yeah because you don't see the faces and they're kind of submerged in the water you're like like yeah what what layers can we peel back yeah into it so i thought that is really good art even that as a photo i'd probably like have on my wall and personally found that was enough to press play yeah shout out to whoever did the cover yeah big them up i also saw a very beautiful piece that he posted online which is basically the artwork but it's like a video in it so you just see emotion so you see the water rippling and you see the couple like bobbing up and down yeah it's very very pleasing okay um so speaking about social media quickly he doesn't do much much talking um or much sort of like social media promotion okay obviously a lot of artists nowadays is like posting every day yeah and it's like months lead up before you get into dropping um however what he has done here feels very intentional it feels like it's in a world feels like it's in a sort of like a color palette and yeah it's just high quality everything is very deliberate there's some interesting angles in there there's some interesting sort of just concepts in there and i would say there's been a very clear elevation of that quality and also the mood of the rollout compared to previous stuff that i can see on his social media so big up him and the team for conceptualizing this feels like he's gone away made the album come back showed a bit of the process yeah and then just with like the messaging around it was like alms out on 13th of march and it was all sort of like funneling people's attention towards that release day okay um so that being said let's get into the music there's 19 tracks uh the majority of them are sort of like two to two and a half minutes so they're almost like little different vignettes of essentially a love story and the journey of romance.

31:36So the first track is the title track, Sink or Swim. Going to get into a few of the topics of the records, but not all of them. So essentially we start with this one, which is a letter to his love interest, asking if they can give it a proper go, really, hence being the title track. And the girl's response essentially means that it's Sink or Swim if they jump into it. we've got a few other tracks uh that sort of like paint the picture of what forever could look like should they sort of get into it yeah track three is called higher frequency this uh showed a bit of a slight change in the sonic um which i personally appreciated yeah and i was like cool we're getting into versatility this is sounding like cohesion but the album but there's a difference so i was like cool i'm invested for the rest of the album it's like 43 minutes yeah yeah we can yeah yeah i'm here now i'm here yeah exactly that's one of the things i appreciate about the album it's just like the chopping and changing of like different types of sounds and stuff they weren't afraid to yeah to go into different kind of sub genres or or what right it's not like although it is like rb this there's different facets which is good so exactly and then track four like had a nice sort of like moment where there's like a guy doing a voiceover basically is like a low male voice and he's not you are now listening to the sultry sounds of the car yeah okay cool this is this cold sounds like you're in some sort of like smoky dark jazz bar yeah yeah it's like quiet storm rb like 90s vibes yeah i'm here for it man but then we kind of almost like start speaking to the directly to the female audience but also the audience in general i think speaks to his like previous work and you know that we alluded to before um with sky arts and the like because there's a bit of that sort of voiceover that says for the ladies out there light a candle chill put your feet up and feel the vibes um which i really like because it feels like it sets the scene yeah and it's almost an instructional way of how telling fans how is best to receive and listen to this music yeah um without without actually addressing yeah saying like this is kind of what's coming in terms of mood but like yeah and then we've got like um a track called floating which talks about how he feels like he's floating with his lover and on this one he also raps which i was like oh okay so we've done musical versatility now we've got performance versatility yeah yeah around the same time as like the new jack swing era like they had like a lot of r &b artists that would like spill into like the second verse or the bridge they'll just randomly be pulling out raps you're like oh okay i didn't know i didn't know you might have that in you kind of thing uh and as soon as i heard that i was like oh right and it kind of gave me that same type of feeling so they're still like they're pulling from like kind of old um i guess kind of styles which is pretty cool but and it feel like a really nice effortless way to be showcasing like full realm of artistry five tracks in like there's a there's a lot going on it feels like he's built sort of like a world um like a sonic world yeah um which i definitely appreciated and found like quite um yeah captivating and even some of the little skits between um him and the the female like you basically you're hearing excerpts of their private conversations and stuff and it feels like that is a nice sort of like thread throughout yeah which ties it all together and so then we go from floating into some more like hardships within relationship uh one of the tracks is called uh tough decisions there's another track called let's move on and so you're starting to get like you've got past the honeymoon phase and it's now like we've got you've got to deal with real life stuff within a relationship and where where do we where do we go from here there was a nice lyric in tough decisions that stood out to me that said um i don't talk much but i'm not a fool i might love hard but i can't be used he makes it rhyme and it's uh and uh yeah there's just some nice bits that stand out and you're like okay cool you can see like almost like the inner conflict of like where where we're at here yeah then we've got a nice feature uh from an artist called uh malik lives on track nine um which is like sort of rap slash poetry-esque just nice delivery he's got some really nice uh nice lyrics in there um so shout out him uh we've got a little interlude which is like a cassette recording um halfway through um i'm not quite sure what the context of that is could be like him and a family member or something that's like some sort of like proverbial thing growing up or whatever but that was nice as well um and again just nice to bring that to bring that in track 11 um is a track called something spiritual he refers to his father's passing in this which was only june 2025 oh wow so super recent um and certainly adds like another layer to how to like the processing of a romantic relationship when you're also dealing with that and your own process of grief yourself yeah yeah I haven't found the whole thing.

36:36It was on Hoxton Radio, but he did an interview where he spoke about after this life almost forced him to slow down, he had writer's block and was someone who's like a perfectionist. So he was just like really battling with how do I get my creative output happening. And then he said he spoke with LVM and getting in the studio with him really helped that process. He really helped him take the pressure off and create freely. and LVM pointed out to him that he often like can overcook things to the point of quote burning the stew which I thought was quite a nice sort of an analogy of like bro like at a certain point let just things be done because over complicating stuff can actually ruin it and Rahib said this collaborative process helped him to feel more relaxed and take the pressure off the music maker so yeah it's crazy like what loss can do to an artist and and how that can um kind of move things because one of the artists that we mentioned before icon that was one of the reasons that he went back into music and created his project was because of the loss of his dad as well so um it's i i guess you become kind of focused i guess right yeah and you need like an outlet for all your feelings.

37:55So yeah, it's interesting how artists interact with things that are happening in their lives. 100%. I think music is also like therapy for a lot of people because it's cathartic. I guess the beauty of music is that you're forced to kind of confront that because you're writing a lyric down. So you have to believe what you're saying is how you actually feel at that point. Yeah, especially if you're an artist that wants to be personally in touch with your music. I guess you have to just put it all out there, right? So yeah, it's really interesting. Yeah, and super impressive as well because I think it requires a lot of courage to be candid with those sorts of things.

38:32Yeah, 100%. Yeah, fair play. Going to skip down a few tracks. Track 17 is called Non-Disclosure and it features an artist called Carly. I thought it was nice to have a little female vocal come in there for like a nice addition. Again, adds a bit of variety. And then there's Interlude. Track 18 is called SOS, which is obviously like an acronym of the album title sink or swim but also um a signal of distress often used at sea so i thought that was a clever incorporation of like like a cry for help within a relationship but also the ultimatum of this is sink or swim i have to choose if i'm going to engage yeah or not almost um and there's a really lovely sort of like this is it feels like a bit of a poem really this um and yeah a lot of references to the water short about finding the rhythm of the water um the sea of love is never still and this sort of stuff so it's nice sort of imagery that you can that you can um pick out there okay final track deep end don't let me down is a repeated lyric here and he's basically taken the plunge into the deep end of love and is hopeful of um what will sort of come of that and so that's kind of the project in a nutshell i think it's a very impressive example of a cohesive project that tells a story around the subject matter yeah with clear sections throughout but it doesn't feel like it is like conclusive yeah like in a good way like it's not like here's my take on love and here's how you make it work but it's more just like his personal experience um with some intertwined like hiccups and his kind of like my stream of consciousness as to like what goes through the mind of a man in a relationship yeah so yeah and i thought it was an impressive elevation from some of his previous uh work just in terms of like having checked some of it but in terms of clarity in terms of production and cooperation of different sounds and then the visual role as i say um albeit condensed i thought um yeah it is high quality yeah i guess in terms of that clarity um as you said it helps when you're working alongside someone right because they can kind of almost like check what like our progress and be like do we need to have all of this thing all these things in or does it match what we just made before whereas like i guess if you have a project that has loads of different people involved yeah it can just go anywhere right like we spoke about it with um with dave and kind of he only had like a few collaborators but that that's what keeps everything the same almost right so yeah it's cool and to that point quick question actually so what is well like we talked about the value of collaboration um if you obviously we spoke about lvn being very um yeah like pivotal in the process of this not just because of his artistic talents but because what are you how he helped rahim to kind of relax into the process um if you were artists what would your like process be would you want to be around like a few or collaborators or would you want to be like everyone send me stuff and i'll decide what I think is good I think there's there's multiple ways to go about it I feel I think what's from a lot of the projects that I like there seems to be like an artist and like an exec producer slash producer right alongside you when they're doing a project and then so you can still be bringing in different producers and different artists but then you both have that clear message right so you have it on both sides you have it on in terms of the the vocals and how you want things to sound and the actual production itself um i think i feel that's the key like i'm always impressed by people that can do just like an album by themselves and stuff because that because that is for me that sounds like very difficult to do i think you need at least at least one person throughout kind of thing like drake has like 40 yeah yeah like jordan award has lino and like you need you need someone next to you i feel anyways no for sure i think to anchor it and to keep it consistent because if you as the artist don't have um production like mouse then it's great to have someone who keeps things in the same vein yeah especially if you're wanting to have a thematic project yeah and sometimes it could just be just so you can have a majority in the room kind of thing because if if it's like if i'm just an artist and i'm with someone else they could want to put their impression which is good to a point but like they could want to make it something completely different yeah yeah like it's good to have two of you to be like well like let's go down here more for sure yeah yeah so i think that's yeah i think you need one person i agree i think i would do the same can i put my hater hat on for a sec yeah my weekly hater hat this is a this isn't hate this is a question as well um how do you feel about skits in general because i'm not a huge fan of skits um and i don't like skits at the start of the song is i i don't mind at the end of the song because if it bangs then i'll leave it on if it doesn't if it doesn't it's fine we move on in it but at start a song i don't know how i feel like one of the skits in the in this album in the sink or swim that i really like is um i I can't remember the song, but it's like the sexy R &B.

43:50Yeah. And I really like that because they've still got the music in the background and you can feel that they're in the studio. It's like, you've got these tunes and I'm listening to it like, oh, I want to hear what that is. These are about the cooking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So then like, and that's its own track, I guess. I guess I don't mind if it's its own track sometimes as well. But the start of the song, I'm not huge on. How do you feel about it? Yeah, I agree. I don't love skits I don't love skits in this instance I think because it's a common thread throughout and there's clearly one narrative that he's telling and it's clearly deliberate that he wants to create this sort of like continuity of the story it makes sense yeah I understand the purpose of them even for this I still don't love it he's done it and it's good because it's helped me to make sense of the story he's telling but like sonically i find skits jarring in it yeah why why are people talking about like literally put it on the song before like yeah yeah i agree i don't like it at the start at the end is okay but then i'm but then yeah i agree with you i like what he's done with this yeah track uh 15 is called bring back sexy r &b yeah and yeah he's basically playing around with ideas in the studio of yeah his guys yeah it's been too long like we need to make music and so i quite because you can shut your eyes and be like i can picture this man yeah and he's sharing ideas they're like we need to we need to do this yeah so i do quite like that what i don't love is when people like just randomly talking and stuff yeah it's just for me it's just at the start of the song i know we need like sometimes in projects we need it but just put it at the back of the song for me yeah agreed i i personally would prefer them without overall i think the place for me the place for for that is adding it into a music video like creatively when you're also sitting in the scene and you i can picture it too i don't mind it in in there but i just want to have the option to not listen to it i think that's that's all it is for me yeah so it's either if it's one if it's a single song that's fine a single skit in itself that's fine because i can skip it if it's at the back end then i can skip it if it's at the start it's obviously i can screw it all across and be like whatever and i remember how long the skit is or whatever but yeah i'm just that's just my take on it like i don't mind hearing them especially the first time you listen to it listen to a project i like i'm like yeah yeah it's world building in it like i'm here for it but then when i'm just like i wouldn't get rid of that version yeah now i'm just here for the tunes just put it at the back but that's that's my take that's my take no I hear it I hear it I don't disagree let's bring it back into more positive energy yeah yeah yeah so favourite songs favourite songs you want me to go first yeah favourite songs if you're ready let's go so I've got two same okay thanks great so my favourite song is Floating okay and that's because the production's really good I really like the the kind of the bass line as well I'm like a sucker for a good bass line.

47:04But the production as well, it leaves enough space, which is like, yeah, well, exactly that is floating. And which is super key for me because it means like Raheem could be in the pocket and like, he's just going off and then, which I find. Yeah. So that's, that's my, that's definitely my favorite. The other, the other one is the one that you mentioned is the something spiritual because vocally he's just going he's going off yeah and it's like you can like the song is about his vocals in it like it's not like lyrically heavy he's just saying something spiritual yeah but he's showing like the runs and stuff and it's like building you know okay like this is and it is feel it does feel spiritual right so uh that yeah they're my two nice what are you saying am i am i taking one of yours yeah we've got overlap i've got two one is also floating yeah I'm not going to expand on that because if anyone who's listening just check that one out it's good the second one is Crushed Velvet which is track 3 if I'm not mistaken yeah so Crushed Velvet is the voice over intro right so that's like the radio where we're getting into it we're getting sexy R &B here that's when you know like okay Crushed Velvet is the song title you're like okay this is sensual and then the voice you're like okay yeah for me tracks three and four you've got higher frequency into crushed velvet or then to be filled into floating and i was like we're doing lots of different pockets here and crushed velvet in the middle i was like to be fair this stands out and i it's one of those ones where i close my eyes and feel like as i said where you're listening to it i thought the incorporation of different instruments would be nice yeah um and yeah it's just the vibe in it so those are my two no you're right the that three tracks sequence is it's cold yeah that's a run right that's cold that's that locked in like yeah that's cold bro if i'm if i'm being very objective i would say that is the strongest part of the album and that's what locked me in yeah exactly that's what locked me in and then i would say i would say musically it started to blend a bit more towards towards the end um but obviously we completed the story that that um he was telling but that right there excellent execution yeah um and yeah as you say locked us in to listen to the whole hour yeah this is why now they have this discussion yeah these three tracks are while we're talking yeah so so big up Raheem and Elvian on that one for sure yeah and then I think just gonna gonna wrap it pretty shortly but I would say for anyone who's not heard of um not heard of him definitely give it a listen if you're still unsure as to the pocket he sits in I would say personally And I'm interested to hear your opinion as well But this is for fans of people who might like Jack James Okay, yeah Who might like Koji Radical Yeah Givion And Brent Fyres Okay, yeah, I hear it I would This is a weird one I would add Thames into there as well Oh, interesting Just because vocally Some of the runs that I've heard I heard throughout the album Were very like Thames adjacent So obviously it sounds different But like the way it goes Yeah I was like, okay like there's there's different moments in the album where you can see that he's using different techniques and like vocally yeah so it doesn't necessarily sound the same throughout which i find really cool because the vocals change and so does the production but they still manage to keep it into yeah it's impressive into one thing which is why i was hating before but i do think the skits do help that as well it does help like tie it all up um so yeah i'll put thames on that as well nice yeah very cool so yeah do check him out do check him out he's um I think he's released like four albums over like a 12 year period or something so I hope I would love to see more consistency from him because I was as my first foray into him I was um I was impressed by this and I would like to like to see what else what else he's got cooking especially as per that sort of like skit fact of like bro what else have you got in the locker yeah I'm showing you more um so yeah big amount man I mean I this this release did feel like a a moment so let's see how it builds and goes and we're looking forward to following you've got two fans now and hopefully a couple more from this conversation yeah this is the whole point i feel like he's kind of goes under the radar of it so hopefully um we can show a little people some good music coming out of the uk specifically south london so yeah big up rahim makari and lvm single swim out now go run that one up yeah man sounds good bro let's wrap up from there Let's call it