Uptown XO’s “Colour de Grey”: Go-Go Beats and Soulful Swag

Much like fellow DMV MC Tabi Bonney, Uptown XO puts out tons of good mixtapes and albums. Yet these albums do not get the hype they deserve. His newest album, Colour de Grey, is a blend of go-go, hip-hop, and soulful sounds similar to the earlier mixtapes of Wale like 100 Miles and Running. XO is a part of a hip-hop kibbutz (Hebrew for collective group) of MCs self-titled Diamond District.

The soul and flavor XO spits is all about the overly-gentrified hangouts he used to frequent like the Georgia Avenue corridor as well as other spots around the DMV. According to The Washington Post, this is the soundtrack to the gentrification of DC via hip-hop. There’s a spoken word, hippy-like element he brings to tracks like “Spread Love”, using words like salaam.

To quote Uptown XO, “The tension behind the gentrification thing [is about] the demographic changing and the stories, the legacy that we had on certain streets, things that we considered landmarks that weren’t publicized landmarks to the masses, but we grew up here.”

Key tracks off this album are “Everyday” and “Soul Value”.

-Michele Amira

(@nicejewishswag)