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GoldLink
GoldLink Photograph: PR
GoldLink Photograph: PR

New band of the week: GoldLink (No 76)

This article is more than 8 years old

Virginia-born rapper, with a love of Edgar Allan Poe and Lykke Li, Maya Angelou and Pink Floyd, creates an unalloyed brand of ethereal EDM trap

Hometown: Washington DC.

The lineup: D’Anthony Carlos (vocals).

The background: GoldLink is a 21-year-old rapper whose work, roughly speaking, fits under the rubric of “electronic hip-hop”, with sonic allusions to house, garage, EDM and most forms of dance music in general. And his raps are a torrent of stream-of-consciousness, delivered with a sort of spaced-out urgency. Think intricate but infectious blissed-out club bangers with fast BPMs, based on classic soul samples, skittering beats and modern synth sounds, from a hyperactive, over-stimulated, angsty Andre 3000.

Whatever it is he does, it’s been drawing admirers. Earlier this year, he went into the studio with Rick Rubin; he’s been touring with SBTRKT, Mac Miller, Flume and others. He’s had more than 11m plays and 65,000 followers on SoundCloud, and he was named a member of XXL’s 2015 Freshman Class, that prestigious annual who’s-gonna-be-who of the hip-hop world, alongside Fetty Wap, Vince Staples, Raury and Tink, the latter only a year after we featured her (do keep up, XXL). When asked for a catchall to describe what he does, he came up with “future bounce”; then, with more time to consider, he added, ”Rick James meets Justin Timberlake – ’N Sync days – with Backstreet Boys and a little D12 and Tupac.”

His 2014 debut mixtape was called The God Complex, its title reflecting the quote on his SoundCloud, from Christian philosopher Rob Bell: “The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God.” He’s prone to philosophical or poetic musings: the very first tweet on his Twitter account reads: “The unreal is more powerful than the real. Because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it.” Not that he’s particularly religious or god-fearing; just that he believes in a higher power, and its name is imagination. That’s his credo – the power of the imagination – and his ambition is the search for perfection.

The God Complex finds GoldLink exploring themes of sex, violence, family, love and addiction, through simultaneous self-adoration and self-loathing and filtered through a penchant for old rappers (from Big L to KRS-One to Canibus to Kurupt) and even older poets (Edgar Allan Poe and Maya Angelou are particular favourites). Factor in a love of Pink Floyd, Grimes and Lykke Li, draft in some largely unknown producers – Louie Lastic, Fingalick, Teklun, Lakim, Bunx – and you’ve got a recipe for someone multifaceted and maverick. And that is what this character with the nose ring, head scarves, Jesus and Mary medallion and alias that pays homage to 60s pimp culture, is. The fact that he doesn’t have a single producer – a Clams Casino, an Illangelo – means it’s hard to get a fix on his agenda, let alone his identity, but in a way that’s half the fun: his fluidity. By turns beatific and braggadocian, sex-fixated and spiritual, he’s rap’s new thought-provoking wunderkind. And you can dance to him.

The buzz: “Masterfully updates 90s boom-bap, while also offering a compelling path to the dancefloors of the future” – Billboard.

The truth: He’s rap’s new gold standard.

Most likely to: Go ’bap to the future.

Least likely to: Go to church.

What to buy: His debut LP And After That, We Didn’t Talk is released by Black Butter on 13 November.

File next to: Kid Cudi, Andre 3000, A$AP Rocky, Daye Jack.

Links: soundcloud.com/goldlink.

Ones to watch: The Prettiots, Bror Forsgren, Andy Shauf, Lionlimb, London O’Connor.

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