by Kelly Page
pagekell@grinnell.edu
This Friday at 9:30 p.m., make sure to boogie on down to the world-famous Gardner Lounge for rappers UNIIQU3 and Dai Burger.
UNIIQU3 is a proud member of the Jersey Club movement, a genre that originated in her hometown of Newark, New Jersey. The genre incorporates heavy bass and breakbeat rhythms into hip-hop music. In an interview with The Fader, UNIIQU3 said, “Jersey Club is your morning coffee and your midnight Red Bull. It’s the best genre, ranging from 130 to 140BPM with hard kicks and catchy vocals.” Though the genre was born in the ’90s, musicians like her are keeping it relevant in 2018. When UNIIQU3 first got involved in the Newark music scene it was solely as a singer, but eventually she also started producing, DJing and rapping. Since then, UNIIQU3 has performed for Boiler Room and Givenchy, and has appeared onstage with artists like Rae Sremmurd, Hudson Mohawke and Skepta.
Seven months ago, UNIIQU3 released a remix of Cardi B’s “Bodak Yellow” which reimagines the hit song through Jersey Club. UNIIQU3 puts Cardi’s verses over racing Newark rhythms, which shift and evolve throughout the track. The remix has 53,000 listens on SoundCloud and thousands of comments that say “fire.” In December of last year, UNIIQU3 released another significant track in her career, a new single entitled “LIKE ME,” where she raps “Ain’t no bitches like me/ getting shmoney like me/ getting Euros in Pari/ takin Jersey overseas,” words that succinctly sum up her career so far.
In her live performances one can expect to see UNIIQU3 DJing while she raps and dances, incorporating her Jersey Club music with R&B. She is a versatile performer who keeps her music exciting for listening and dancing, a perfect fit for a Friday night in Gardner.
Also performing on Friday is rapper from Queens, New York Dai Burger. Burger’s career in music began when she toured with Lil Mama as a background dancer, but since then she has forged a path for herself as a solo rap artist named after hamburgers. In an interview with Bedford and Bowery she explained her beef-patty-inspired name saying, “I like to think that I’m stacked, and juicy, I got the cheese, got the buns and I eat every time I show up.”
Dai Burger has been on the come-up in hip-hop music since her single “Soufflé” debuted in 2013, with a music video that is a weird, colorful homage to candy, dancing with friends and Burger’s notorious sense of fashion. Shortly after, in April 2014, Rolling Stone named Burger an “Artist to Watch,” and those who have been watching her since then have not been disappointed. Before even releasing an album, she opened for Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz on Lil Wayne’s America’s Most Wanted Tour.
Her debut album, “Soft Serve,” shows more of what fans have come to love about Burger: feminism, self-assurance and a sense of humor. In her track “Where My Girls,” she supports and empowers other women around her as she also calls on them to “whip their hair everywhere.” Dai Burger makes fun, interesting rap music which will make this Friday night fun for anyone who goes to see her perform.
On Saturday, Feb. 24, also in Gardner Lounge, bands Palm and Spirit of the Beehive will rock the worlds of all who attend.
According to their record label, Carpark Records, “Palm play rock music backwards.” With rhythmic guitars and melodic drums and bass, nothing about their sound is typical. Having met at Bard College in upstate New York, since 2011 Palm has made music that sounds like a weird, rhythmically complex mixture of Sonic Youth and early Animal Collective. Their latest album “Rock Island,” which they recorded in a barn in upstate New York, sounds like music that would play at a tropical resort in a dream.
Spirit of the Beehive, a band named after a Spanish cinematic masterpiece, has been generating a buzz in the music world with their releases. Pitchfork described one of their albums called “Pleasure Suck” as “an equally compelling and impenetrable album most bands are either too square, too scared or too savvy to make themselves.” Their hazy lo-fi rock will be sure to blanket Gardner in warm guitar and echoey vocals.
