As one of the newest members of the SubmitHub family, I’ve been receiving pieces from artists to check out. It’s actually a pretty dope way to find some unheralded gems in the sea of music these days. I came across this one from Paradox and ReFlex the Architect and, in a few words, it reminds me of a mix between early Common and C.Shreve the Professor. In other words, it’s lyrical as hell, but also still breezy and not overly serious with its approach.

“Need a Light?,” instead, is a chilled out hip-hop track that features the duo and Moka Only rapping about the positivity that each artist can bring through their lyrics and their endeavors. The production, however, is the star here–even though the lyrics and bars are quite nice, too. When they pitched it to me, a highlighted fact about the track was that it sounded like something Dilla or Nujabes would’ve put together. Since those legends are two of my favorite producers, I was automatically intrigued. When the boombap vibes started creeping out my speakers, I had a grin across my face that was hard to hide. It’s damn near a perfect song, but definitely perfect for those who may be experiencing some midsummer blues because of relationship drama, real life problems, COVID restrictions and so on. Sometimes, you just need to find the light in a crappy situation and hold on to it.

It’s an excellent track and one that I wholeheartedly recommend checking out. So, do the thing: check the track out below and remember to support dope music in all its forms. If this SubmitHub thing pops off, I’ll be able to access a slew of artists that I’ve never had the chance to access before.