Simply put, Anderson Paak is a fucking star. The soulful, singer-rapper-drummer has received a lot of attention since Dr. Dre put him on to the world, with 6 features on his long-awaited album, Compton—Paak is undoubtedly the main highlight. But, some of us have known about Paak’s ingenuity since his Venice EP last year, maybe even as far back as the music he put out under his previous BreezyLoveJoy moniker. Paak had already satisfied my expectations of an artist with Venice, but that was just the beginning. 2016 will be the year of: Anderson Paak Unleashed.
To give us a taste of the storm that’s brewing, Paak will present The Anderson .Paak EP on September 25th, a collaborative project with the incredible production duo Blended Babies (credits include: Kid Cudi, Black Keys, Chance The Rapper, The Cool Kids, Ab-Soul, and on and on). A few weeks ago, we got the first glimpse of the project with “So Slow,” featuring King Chip, which had a gloriously UGK feel to it.
Today, we are happy to premiere the next song, “Make It Work,” featuring Asher Roth and Donnie Trumpet. The collaboration resulted in the most delectable melody, from the tender drums to jazzy trumpet outbursts, and of course, Paak’s sensuously raspy vocals. I especially love the verse he drops here: “I fell in love with your worth / I know that you’re worth it / I really love when it’s earned / It seems like you want this.” The process of trying to make desired relationships work, in any case, are sentiments we can all relate to.
Make sure to pre-order The Anderson .Paak EP here.