LISTEN: Airliftz’s Bagel EP Marks the Official Beginning of the 19-Year-Old’s Music Career

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Before Bagel EP launches this Friday night at The Bee, Publika, complete with its physical copies on sale, you can now acquaint yourself with the record via streaming services.

The 5-tracker documents Airliftz’s growth as an artiste; from a teenage bedroom musician of the SoundCloud generation to a grown, end-of-his-teens rapper who’s out to prove that he can put food on the table with music (as sung on end track ‘Appreciate’). With GROSSE (recently responsible for Sam Rui’s Season 2 and Ffion’s Bad Habits EP) helming the project not just as a producer, but also a guiding hand, the sort of excess and meanderings you’d find on Airliftz’s self-produced SoundCloud releases are trimmed down, giving the 19-year-old a clear direction instead. Though fans of Airliftz’s own production needn’t worry, reportedly his lengthier future record will lean more towards a fully self-produced affair.

As focused as he is now, Bagel EP is still very much as playful as Airliftz has ever been – the title track suggests as much. ‘Bagel’ got him declaring “I love my bagel like I love my woman,” and that analogy is continued throughout the song with the innocence of a first love. Elsewhere, like on ‘I Don’t Wanna Go Out’, he reveals a precocious maturity; going out for him is more for the grind than the recreational. GROSSE’s beats – often ebullient, befitting of the young rapper’s persona – give the EP consistency sonically, and throughout all five guest-less tracks (aside from GROSSE’s own backing vocals), Bagel undoubtedly proves that Airliftz is capable of carrying a record on his own.

Stream the EP below:

Out via This Way Up, Bagel EP is also available on iTunes, Tidal, Deezer, and Apple Music.

Follow Airliftz on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and SoundCloud.