One of Detroit's most creative hip-hop beatmakers, Apollo Brown, who we've been bigging up here at the MT for awhile now, just released a rock-solid new instrumental album today called Clouds and fans of good music should immediately check it out. Most of the album's 27 tracks hover around hip-hop or essentially use that genre as a base, but from there, Apollo shows listeners how versatile of a producer he can be. There are plenty of beats here that most rappers wouldn't know how to rhyme over and each cut ends up being an audible showcase of where Apollo's head is and the projects he's capable of doing.
On one hand, it's similar to what J-Dilla did with Donuts in that many of that album's beats weren't meant to be rapped over either. Instead, it was a "here's how far ahead of you cats I really am" type of project that wowed and inspired and entertained and intimidated all at once. Clouds doesn't totally touch that level, but it reaches for it and that's a good sign of the type of artist Apollo is becoming. Folks can check out the video above to get a taste.
People looking to purchase Clouds can go here to support the album. You can also stream it below.
