Yeek – “Car Window” / “Solstice”

Fresh off the road following a national tour, Los Angeles-based rapper and producer Yeek is back again today with two new singles: “Car Window” and “Solstice”.

Combining his signature low-key rapping style and his famous downtempo beats (reminiscent of Steve Lacy), both songs spotlight the beauty in Yeek’s careful production skills. More specifically, these two singles focus on the sound rather than the content of what he’s rapping about.

The best example of this would be “Car Window”. Lyrically, it’s about the titular broken car window, being paranoid about the downstairs neighbours, and even FOMO… from what you can make out. The rest of the lyrics are filtered through a synthesiser and bookend the rap, adding some tonal variety to the mix. It’s a risky use of an effect, since when done badly it could completely ruin a song–but when done correctly, it proves masterful. Luckily for Yeek, it’s the latter. All of this combined creates a hypnotic, calming feeling for the listener–who cares about all of those things that he mentioned earlier? Let’s chill.

“Solstice”, the more upbeat of the two songs (but since we’re talking Yeek here, that means kicking up the BPM just a little bit), is built off of slurred “hey’s” and looping, drifting beats that culminate in scattered melodica notes. Again, it’s ironic that he raps that he’s “got a lot to say” since “Solstice” is a song that’s about nothing at all (eating cheese, insisting that he doesn’t toke or smoke that much anymore). But as for creating that calming feeling? There it is again.

Perhaps the approach to these two songs could be summed up with a line from “Car Window.” “I’m bad with any emotions / baby it’s not my fault,” Yeek admits.

His lyrics may seem a bit muddled and abstract, but in terms of conveying a feeling, there’s no way that he could make it any clearer.

Li-Wei Chu

Li-Wei Chu is the chief editor of From the Intercom. When he’s not editing drafts and searching for new artists to cover for the website, he loves watching cult films, cooking, and listening to his ever-growing collection of vinyl records. You can follow him on LetterBoxd and make fun of his taste in movies here!