The Kid Daytona: Air Born and The Groove
From: Come Fly With Me [2009]

I’ve pretty much been on hiatus from this site the last month or two, partly due to real world moves, partly down to posting exhaustion brought on from nearly five years of doing this and partly down to getting lost in mammoth hip hop compilations.

To cut a long story short, a friend of mine who used to DJ fell out of love with the rapped word around the mid nineties. In discussion a few months back I was once again arguing the merits of modern hip hop to no avail. Seeing an opportunity to reacquaint the man with the music he used to love, I took on the task of compiling a series of 30-40 track “mixtapes” which featured the cream of the crop from recent years, the only (self-imposed) rule being that I couldn’t feature the same artist twice.
While gamely taking this on, halfway through the second compilation I slowly began to realise that if I wanted to do the form justice I needed to cast the net wider than my normal listening experience as, while my love for all things Texas and the Bay knows no bounds, I knew that his particular tastes would require more of a balance.

I therefore started checking out more random releases floating about, clicking on any free mixtape, street album and the like that popped up. It was with this have-a-go attitude that I came across The Kid Daytona’s free to download album Come Fly With Me. Not particularly familiar with any of the producers involved and entirely unfamiliar with The Kid’s previous output it’s an album I probably would have skipped over previously but out of curiosity gave it a listen and I’m mighty pleased I did.Offering up a hit rate higher than most pay for albums I’ve picked up recently Come Fly With Me hits a fine balance of decent production and an impressive flow from Daytona.

Air Born, the last track on the album, is probably my stand out track. Featuring a stripped down hypnotic steel drum loop and guitar the track has The Kid showcasing a smooth flow over the beats to create a sense of menace and as a bonus an understated guest spot from Bun B.

The Groove has Datyona in proper throwback mode as he delivers the goods over a bass driven beat straight out of the nineties that is skilful enough to avoid falling anywhere near pastiche. I’m aware that having just written in depth about convincing my chum to engage with modern sounds posting a throwback track is somewhat ironic but such is life.

It’s undoubtedly true that the production on this won’t be for everyone (for me personally there were a few too many tracks featuring a sort of muted guitar and drum combination) but for free how can it hurt to try it out?

A lesson learned that if I’m ever to fully convince my friend to embrace what’s happening now rather than then I need to keep my ears open to all possibilities. I’m now on comp three so any recommendations on people I may be sleeping on will be gratefully received……

Oh yeah, just to remind you as well, we are embracing web 2.0 with our own Facebook page. Don’t be shy, be our friend.