When I first heard St Louis native Chester Watson on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show last year, I was blown away by how a kid so young (16 at the time) can rap so good. Obviously, the likes of Earl Sweatshirt most recently have all broke through at a tender age, but it takes a lot to make peoples heads turn, let alone a prime time Radio 1 DJ. As soon as I'd heard "Phantom", I went and download Chester's mixtape of the same name, and was instantly hit by the fact that it was a dope project.
Since I first heard his music, Chester has only dropped a handful of tracks, and has mostly stuck to features or producing instrumentals, which he collected and put on a couple of beat tapes as well as selling his beats to other rappers. When he announced that he was working on his next project, the excitement hit fever pitch amongst fans of his crew the Nu Age Syndicate. After a couple of delays, and dates being pushed back by months, we finally have Tin Wooki, and if this project doesn't show that the young Floridian resident is about to have a breakthrough year in 2014, then I don't know what will.
For a start, the project is twenty eight tracks deep, and I haven't found one weak track. Sure, there are songs that knock a lot harder than others, but I never skipped a single track on Tin Wooki. With a selection of handpicked beats from the likes of long term collaborators Psymun and Art Vandelay, as well as some self-produced gems that show off his multiple skills, Chester sharpens up his writing and rapping skills, delivering much tighter flows and even cleverer wordplay. Tin Wooki also features guest verses from a few familiar faces, including fellow Nu Age homies Comme and Breeze Pachino, who both come with the goods on their respective tracks "Chinamen" and "Mammoth", showing that the entire Nu Age crew are talented emcee's waiting for their chance.
I've included a pick of my four most listened to tracks on Tin Wooki below for you to stream, but you can stream and download (for 'name your price') the project over at Chester's Bandcamp, which you can hit up on the link below.
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/138472203" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/138715869" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/138646984" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]
[soundcloud url="https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/138651705" params="auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true" width="100%" height="450" iframe="true" /]
Chester Watson
Tin Wooki
- University Records
- 8th March, 2014
