I’m a real sucker for indie covers. Especially when it’s a stripped version of a rap song, as sung by Sydney songster Xavier Dunn. Today he adds to his catalog of hip-hop covers (that include his takes on Kanye and A$AP Rocky tracks), Rae Sremmurd’s Billboard chart-topper “No Type."
Dunn's variation starts with some simple guitar, the standard set-up for a love ballad, but then his calm tenor comes in and so casually drops the lyrics, “I ain’t got no type, bad bitches is the only thing that I like / You ain’t got no life, cups with the ice oh we do this every night," and we're realizing this is an unorthodox undertaking. He quickly switches gears to the faster rap verses, proving that the boy can patter glibly with the best of them. It would be like a coffee shop spoken word session, except that the lyrics are unexpected in lieu of emo. But the most striking thing to note might be that although entirely different styles (Sremmurd's tempo-heavy where Dunn's is melodic), somehow the overall mood of the song and its rhythmic integrity are maintained.
At 1:10 he is joined by percussion, jumps a full octave for the chorus, and the desperation and juxtaposition of his falsetto tenor singing curse words is just too delicious. So stream this musical morsel while it’s hot.
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