Week 3 of Music You Should Know About brings us Lord Apex from London, England. Apex’s brand of hip hop is chill beats at their finest, with very easy listening vibes coming from them in droves. With music chocked full of references to all sorts of his own tastes, like an album paying homage to the anime of his youth, Apex keeps his music fairly clean and perfectly human. Listen here:

https://soundcloud.com/lordapex/ghost-jake-milliner

And here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19JvZGe8zJ4

Apex’s style makes boring Sundays fun again, and (shout out to my brother for the recommendation) he’s one artist whose songs never seem to get old.

What I like about this London royal is his mastery of subtle color (with the British u) in his beats. No two songs sound quite the same, but the effects he uses to give the songs life connect them together. The rainy-day hopeful quality to his work is very appealing.

Lord Apex is a master of lyric writing. Along with his music, he studies media and documentary filming, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he goes on to write more in the future. One of my favorite lyrics comes from the first track, where Apex rhymes, “I think I might as well go to the next dimension/ where they watch Doug Benson/ outer space intervention/ mad game in the sentence.” Apex puts a lot of himself in his music, but not overly so. He doesn’t shove himself into it, but you gain a very good sense of the man behind the name through his music.

One of the things I considered when I wrote this weeks’ MYSKA is whether it’s relatable for everyone, and Lord Apex is a very relatable person. His music gives the impression that he is just a normal guy. Actually, he seems like the kind of person that would be good to talk to, drink a cup of coffee, people watch, and solve all the world’s problems.

In a 2015 interview with MisterrCha of theproducersunited.com, Lord Apex spoke about his views on life.

“To anyone reading I just wanna say I appreciate you for being a part of my existence…Smile whenever you can, compliment random people you walk past on the road you might just make their day. Keep living life a free as possible and don’t let all these man-made restrictions hold you back.” (sic)

Check him out, and I think you may find a very good gateway into Hip Hop and a new artist to put on this week's iPod playlist.