Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom recording artist Niko B following up his most recent EP earlier this spring with a debut mixtape of his own. Starting at the very beginning of this current decade off the strength of his debut single “Marry Berry”, his popularity began to grow exponentially a few months later after putting out his next single “Who’s That What’s That” & the full-length debut album dog eat dog food world last spring being well received enough where it was being recommended to me. people took a more optimistic approach altogether & only a couple months later, we’re finally getting Cheerleader.
“Beginner’s Luck” comes right out the gate with it’s best song from the cloudy New York Drill instrumental from Evilgiane to the hunger in Niko’s performances whereas the trap, grime & UK drill single “mongoose” talks about taking dustcaps almost 2 decades ago. The EDM-inspired “Shoebox” flexes that he’ll run figures with his shoes off leading into “Spawn Trap” talking about not knowing the party he’s in spending 40 on drinks.
Moving on from there, “X-Factor” has a cloudy UK drill vibe to it boasting that he’s the word around his city nowadays while my favorite collaboration “Bolbeck” featuring RealYungPhil turning dust into diamonds. “Polka Dot” instrumentally feels reminiscent of The Neptunes talking about talking about walking with patches on his knees just before “Sellit!” produced by Kwes. steps out of a Civic on Westbound dabbling with jerk.
“Ringing a Bell?” advises to check his wrist if anybody wants to know what he’s been on for the past 17 months & after the boldly boastful “Stunt Jump” experiments with rage for 85 seconds, “Take 5” featuring S5 pulls out more surprises with a fun regalia track. “Pop World” featuring Dimzy atmospherically celebrates their individual successes while “Hermes Stock” describes making 40 bands in a burglary. “They Could Fly” finishes with a glitch hop outro giving the listeners a special thank you.
Eschewing the pop rap & hip house influences of the people EP earlier this summer, Cheerleader is similar to dog eat dog food world from the standpoint of Niko B broadening his artistic palette ahead of a sophomore effort presumably coming next the year. His performances are fun as is the trap, UK drill, new jazz, cloud rap, New York Drill, jerk, rage, glitch hop & regalia production except the brevity of it makes it feel more like an extended play rather than mixtape.
Score: 4/5
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