Anderson.Paak has one of the best voices in hip-hop today, a froggy croon that’s like Professor Frink from the Simpsons crossed with Cee-Lo Green. Following the psychedelic neo-soul of Malibu, he puts it to good use on his second album of 2016, a collaboration with producer Knxwledge who serves up a series of heavily sampled tracks in the vein of Madlib or J Dilla – country soul, sassy disco and gospel funk bump into each other with reddened eyes and bulging trousers. Together, the pair find beauty even in the most basic of lyrical conceits, be it non-specific beef with entire swathes of their peers (HAN), or the hardships of having an endless stream of beautiful women trying to have sex with you (Livvin, What More Can I Say). It’s all great, but especially when they put some eyedrops in and really ride the groove, as on the Slum Village-style romancer Link Up, or Scared Money, which beats Bruno Mars at his current retro boogie game.
