Kura is a 20 year old recording artist from Detroit, Michigan who originally got started under the moniker Blockboy K & even went to high school with my younger brother UnreleasedSnip during their freshman year. Not only has he gone on to drop a total of 3 EPs & a mixtape since 2018, but he’s also caught the attention of South Carolina recording artist/producer Pi’erre Bourne after signing to his Interscope Records imprint SossHouse Records a year & a half ago. Frazier Trill just dropped his sophomore album Still Trapp’n last month as did Chavo & Sharc with Chavo’s World 3 & Sharc Wave respectively, but Kura’s next in line for a full-length debut produced by his mentor only a week after J Billz made his case as the Streetz Hottest Young’n last Friday.

“Arriving” is a cloudy trap opener to the album addressing his arrival to the rap game whereas “Bapes” featuring Chavo goes into more pluggier territory as both of them encourage y’all to simply hop out of bed & do the shit that you want to achieve. “Donations” continues from there in the form of a vibrant pop rap ballad laced with braggadocio, but then “Hold It Up” fuses elements of trap & rock together so he can talk about breaking out of the box they tried to keep him in.

Meanwhile, “Bachelor” comes through with a wavier flare to the instrumental as K flexes that it’s like he loses weight every single time he goes out to shop just before “U Ain’t It” works in some horns & hi-hats so he can talk about the way he’s living these days. “Nightmares” gives off a moodier trap sound comparing his significant other to a movie scene that he can watch all day leading into “Widebody Kit” hooks up a bass-line & more hi-hats talking about making waves even though everyone thought he was a joke when he was 15.

“Switch” goes into a more synth-based direction so he can tackle themes of romance while “Waves” returns to cloud rap territory talking about shaking up the game every time he drops. The beat on “No Rules” is kinda trippy as he discusses living life feeling fine while the song “Born Dis Way” brings back the hi-hats & synthesizers saying everything he does is big. The penultimate track “Saving Grace” has a more peppier tone instrumentally putting all bullshit to the side prior to “PunkParty” wraps things up by pulling from plugg music 1 last time declaring that the young & rich are in the party.

Being a Detroit native myself, it makes me really happy to watch one of the best producers in the modern era like Pi’erre take a local artist like Kura under his wing & I’ll even argue that it’s better than all of those earlier projects he gave us to get to this point. Much like Streetz Hottest Young’n, we have a better look at who the Blockboy is both personally & artistically backed by production that humbly blows his previous work out of the water.

Score: 3.5/5

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