CD reviews: Nick Grant

Hot on the heels of a much-lauded mixtape (2016’s soulful A Seat at The Table + One), and buoyed by A-grade cheerleaders, including Nas and Andre 3000, comes the debut LP from North Carolina native Nick Grant, which seeks to wrest hip-hop from its slavish devotion to EDM.

As with his famed forebears, Grant’s MO is smooth jazzy backdrops, soul samples and whip-smart lyricism  — Gotta Be More sees him bemoan the paucity of ideas in much modern rap ("Guess I’m trapped in the ’80s"). Ironically, the aural backdrops aren’t consistent enough throughout to keep his virtuoso logorrhea afloat.

• Nick Grant. Return of the Cool. Sony.

• Three stars (out of five)

Single download: Gotta Be More
For those who like: Nas, Drake, early Kanye

— John Hayden