Tanya Morgan – Don & Von

Any fan of boom-bap and the three-decade-long creative groove can’t miss this: Tanya Morgan, consisting since 2006 of William Donald “Donwill” Freeman and Devon “Von Pea” Callender. It’s 2021 and their sixth studio album is solid yet appealingly fluid, and very cool. The samples are extremely varied on the jazz and R&B side, and on the rap side, these seasoned beatmakers have the gift of exploiting the first sophisticated forms of hip-hop and distilling an irresistible nectar. Jazz and soul/R&B are filtered here by fine artists, thirty years deep in their craft, hence the multiple references, added values on the electro side, on the filtering of sounds, in the poetic questing. It is slender, light, deep… “I’m on the beach with the wisdom”… The expanse of Black American culture, and of a social, racial, planetary conscience. But still, a strong desire to live fully just in case… The interest of Don & Von lies in the successful marriage between creativity and classicism. It’s slender, it’s light, it’s also deep, it’s also heavy and… Sometimes, the paradox turns out to be soluble in the waters of hip-hop. Here is a delightful example, simply suave, divided into 11 pieces with the visit of Jack Davey, Che Grand, Happy Nina, Kooley High, MoRuf, Rob Cave, and Fresh Rose.