After dropping his 9th Wonder-assisted single Cash Flow, NC representative Fluent finally unleashed his full length project titled ‘Retro Future’. Like the title suggests, he brings forth a myriad of sounds from the beginning to the end of this album. Musically speaking, Fluent tries to bridge the old, new and what is in between on this project. Producers like 9th Wonder, Khrysis and Erv Ford do serve up a healthy dose of sample heavy thumping tracks while J. Cardim, Twan the Beatmaker amongst others cook up that synth driven southern bounce all in the same vein. In the writing department, we get to see Fluent strutting his vocals in a manner akin to a chameleon, one time he’s kicking staccato flows over boom bap, the other he slows it down for some ‘turnt up’ gated pad driven bounce cut. It’s like a mix of different worlds here and I must add, there are plenty of dope tracks to chose from with the most unexpected one being “Switching Lanes” which at first listen nearly threw me off  like no,no,no don’t do it but by the time it got to the chorus I had a change of heart. The sample itself is sappy(although I was a fan of the original as a kid) but producer Cruz definitely nailed it.

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North Carolina based emcee Fluent delivers, Retro Future, a street album which showcases the burgeoning talents artistic diversity. On the album, Fluent meanders from boom-bap influenced production that’s rooted in the context of Hip-Hop’s Golden Era, while also crafting records that emphasize his knack for song writing, over more progressive instrumentation native to club and radio, hence the title, Retro Future. Featured guests on the album include Royce da 5’9″, SpaceGhostPurrp, Median, El da Sensei (Artifacts), Kaze, Jozeemo and more. Producers tapped include 9th Wonder, Khrysis, J. Cardim, as well as Poland’s production duo, The Returners, among others