Stanley Robinson better known as Substantial is a rapper from Maryland.  He is one of my favourite artists and ever since i heard his debut album: ‘To This Union A Sun Was Born‘  which was produced by the great late Nujabes i have been a fan.  To me that was one of the best albums to come out in the last 10 years.  It  was that album that launched his huge fan base in Japan which still exsists to this day.  Since that album was released (2001) he has sinced signed to QN5 (Cunninlynguists, Tonedeff, PackFM, Mr S.O.S) with whom he went on to release the critically acclaimed: Sacrifice album.   With his smart lyricism and breezy beats Substanitals fan base grew and grew with each release, a great example of this would be his ode to hip hop track ‘My Favorite Things’  getting major play on MTV.

Substantial – My Favorite ThingsCLICK IMAGE TO SEE THE VIDEO

Substantial – My Favorite Things

I was lucky enough last year to catch Substanital live as he opened up for Cunninlynguists in London.  At the time i had a friend of mine with me who had never heard of him before but who like everyone else at the show was blown away by him.  His presence on stage was immence, it was one of the best shows i have ever been too!

The reason why the Nujabes and Substantial combination worked so well for me is that his voice and flow suits jazzy style beats.  One of my favourite tracks of his is a remix of Daft Punk‘s Make Love. Its because of this that i was so happy to hear that him and Marcus D have formed a duo called Bop Alloy.  If you don’t know Marcus D you are seriously missing out!   The album is a Japanese release but will also be available digitally worldwide.   Below is a snippet of a track off the coming album:

Be sure to keep a eye out for Substantial this year and if you have slept on him so far – shame on you!  Go check out his previous work and then apologise to him lol!

Substantial – “Its You (I Think)”CLICK IMAGE TO SEE THE VIDEO

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