Wez Atlas - “RUN”

SXSW 2024 - OEB Score: 7; Popularity Index: 4

Pairs Well With…Anderson Paak, Hans., Ted Park 

Wez Atlas is moving from a laid-back, hip hop artist artist to a fusion experimenter on his latest record This Too Shall Pass and follow-up single “RUN”. Funk, pop-punk, indie rock, EDM - these genres aren’t just targeted track to track, but are thrown together and unleashed all at once. It’s a vibe that is fun and a little off-kilter, balanced by classic-rap influences forming the backbone of his sound. Bilingual lyrics give even more sonic reach to Wez Atlas’s sound, easily digestible as the Japanese artists seamlessly jumps language as easily as he jumps around musically on This Too Shall Pass. Even with all this experimentation in mind, Wez Atlas’s 2023 material is consistently catching and gives a party vibe that should translate to a memorable SXSW set. Wez Atlas showcases at Elysium Tuesday night with Inspired By Tokyo. (Kevin McStravick)

2020 Review: Rapping over chillwave R&B soundscapes and beats, Wes Atlas finds a cool and natural space for his classic indie-vibe hip hop approach on debut 2019 EP Saturday. Built on jazz/soul samples and grooves, Wez Atlas’s music is ultra-chill in mood, but there’s some inherent brightness in the Japanese rapper’s percussive, pocket flow that’s a nice counterbalance to the lounge-ready mood on Saturday. There’s also a distinct Cali flavor to Wez Atlas’s approach (Saturday is mostly in English with some nice, unexpected twists of Japanese), surely studied in the past as much as in modern hip hop experimenters, a storyteller’s record sweetly and refreshingly produced.