Miguel: "nwa" [ft. Kurupt]
“This is something for my OGs,” Miguel coos in falsetto on “nwa”, the lead track off his surprise EP, nwa.hollywooddreams.coffee. That (and the title) is just one of several layers of nostalgia. There’s a perfectly silky verse from Kurupt, who slithers around the beat’s sweaty thrust and brings the 1990s West Coast cool. But that chunky groove and the EP’s out-of-nowhere release also recall a more recent epoch in history: Miguel’s career-turn Art Dealer Chic EPs. Those three releases painted him as a maverick capable of channeling the greats while also dealing in charmingly homemade, lo-fi-sounding music, like some R&B savant.
There’s a bit of Art Dealer Chic in the backing track to “nwa”, with its sizzling electric guitar strokes, knocking drums and sly, smoldering chorus. The rough exterior and lyrics like “She just wanna fuck til she can’t move no more” make it a far cry from the rom-com montage of “Do You”. But Miguel’s gift for enchanting melody is still there, especially in the wafting Zombies cascade of multi-tracked vocals that fades “nwa” into afterglow. After two years of lending his talent to other artists (Mariah Carey, Jessie Ware, J. Cole), “nwa” slams right back to the beginning and shows that Miguel’s rise hasn’t muted any of the mercurial magic that made him such an essential artist in 2012, whether we’re talking Kaleidoscope Dream‘s immaculate psychedelia or Art Dealer Chic‘s DIY tendencies. One for his OGs indeed.
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