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Music

Sampha Covered Drake's "Controlla" for BBC Radio's Live Lounge and Made It Into a Dreamscape

More life, more collabs between these two, please.

Drake's done his best to be the Canada's UK rap and R&B selector and More Life showed him doing a pretty good job at that, letting performers like Giggs, Jorja Smith, Skepta, and Sampha take the spotlight for audiences that might not have picked up on them otherwise. Sampha kind of stole the show with his solo cut "4422" and he continued one-upping the Boy on his own material by covering "Controlla" in his inimitably crystalline way for BBC Radio's Live Lounge.

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He strips away the original's dancehall pulse and reharmonizes the melody with chromatic, jazzy piano. Hearing "But you can't just diss and come tell man sorry" over that dissonant chord progression and shivering strings is like if Radiohead went grime, which they have thankfully never done (yet). In any case, Sampha has been on one for most of the year, so listen to his "Controlla" reimagining here, starting at about 2 hours and 14 minutes in.

Phil is a Noisey Canada staff writer. He's on Twitter.