Feel Good Hip-Hop: URF Tone
As an avid hip-hop fan, one thing that gets me every time is when an artist or band comes up with a track that packs the hip-hop punch without resorting to the hackneyed hooks of violence, sex and ostentation. Recently, I was listening to a Spotify playlist called “Boom Bap Classics” when I ran across a real gem, ‘Mi Amor’ by URF Tone, that had me smitten.
‘Mi Amor’ was instant feel-good, with its single kick and spartan keyboard riff that perfectly set off the old-style, duple rhythm of the rap. And the lyrics themselves took my breath away with the real honor and respect for one’s partner and lover that shone through, with lines like, “I couldn’t resist the temptation to sing the praise of my better half” and “I think it’s safe to say that karma obviously comes through, clearly I’ve been good”. The last hip-hop love song that had the power to move me this much was the 2003 track ‘Lady Brown’ by the Nujabes.
Scrolling through the playlist, I spotted another track by the same artists, ‘Energy’, played that and loved it. With its unusually rich acoustics set off by the foil of its 808 beat, ‘Energy’ was like a welcome seltzer on a sunny day. Deciding that I had to listen to all their songs, I checked out URF Tone’s Spotify page and began bumping all the tracks listed — the upbeat ‘Something 4 Ya’ that had me moving and grooving, the mellow, jazz rap sound of ‘Feel is Real’ that took me back to the incredible music of MF Doom, and the funky, electro-laced track of ‘Get Busy’ that reminded me of Bounce classics like Magnolia Shorty’s ‘Smoking Gun’, the number ‘2 Cents’ with its heavy, trap-inspired rhythm, were all winners.
So, of course, I got chatting with the artists behind URF Tone (fyi, ‘URF’ stands for ‘United Republic of Funk’) — the duo of Ila and DJ, The World Famous N.I.C (birth names Ila Parvaz and Nicholas Demps), trying to learn what drove their drippy music. Knowing that our readers must be as intrigued by URF Tone’s music as I was, I’m sharing snippets from the chat here.
First on my list was the question I’d been curious about ever since I’d heard ‘Mi Amor’: Was the track dedicated to any woman (women) in particular? Ila and N.I.C both answered unhesitatingly — they took pride in being good husbands to their wives, and the song was naturally about the women who were the most significant in their lives. Surprised and impressed, I moved on to my next question.
Were they on a mission of some kind, I wanted to know, given how carefully they crafted their lyrics to avoid anything explicit. Again, their answer came with refreshing honesty… they were just making music from a place of childlike passion and intensity, they declared, with a goal of affirming simple, wholesome goodness. In an age of extreme competition, it was natural for their music to stand out from the crowd of, “shock jocks” and “excessive braggadocio”, the duo pointed out. I found myself in complete agreement.
Having enjoyed their amazing music, I really wanted to know how these artists planned on growing URF Tone. Ila and N.I.C shared how their YouTube visibility has been growing steadily, thanks to their podcast-style weekly, URF Tone Tuesday. And although the duo doesn’t have any new music drops planned for the present, they are looking to reach out through their music to more like-minded lovers of classic hip-hop, “with a contemporary twist”. With the thousands of hip-hop lovers wishing for something that feels real, there’s little doubt that URF Tone is a name that we’ll be hearing a lot more of in the days to come. Keep dishing out the dope music, guys.
