Meek DeMeo - Paper Birds (feat. Kendrick Lamar)

Elusive Minnesota singer Meek DeMeo sounds like a watered-down version of explosive R&B act The Weeknd – which is no bad thing, since he strips the lashings of violence glorification and self-aggrandising swagger from the latter’s music and replaces it with a lightness of touch and dense, ambient production that places you perfectly inside his foggy mindset. On Paper Birds, this detached and thoughtful form of R&B is offset by a verse from Kendrick Lamar, who talks bitterly about the realities of street violence (“every time she wake up/ She’s at another wake”). Stream it below.