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Music

Blast David Ashley's "Starz" and Make the Whole World Fall in Love with You

Listen to the latest cut off the JODY member's upcoming 'Perfect Dark' EP.

The explosion of Chicago's hip-hop and R&B scenes over the last couple years continues to yield cool new splinters of sounds, but, perhaps more importantly, it's also led to a growing set of institutions that hope to keep the momentum going. We've been covering the scene of dreamy R&B and hip-hop that's sprung up around production duos The-Drum and Supreme Cuts and acts like JODY, The GTW, and Dre Green. That nexus has already birthed one label, The-Drum's Lo-Motion Sounds, and now there's another, Supreme Cuts' new label Posture.

Posture's first release will be Perfect Dark, a solo EP from JODY member David Ashley on October 7. On "Starz," the latest track from the project that Noisey is premiering below, David croons like he's singing directly to a girl in the backseat of a cab and punctuates the songs with shouts like he's sticking his head out the sunroof of the cab (okay, maybe it's a limo) and waving around a bottle of champagne.

The overall effect is a little bit Drake on "Worst Behavior" but designed to be blasted on the California Blue Line platform instead of some Toronto club, which is to say it's broad-reaching pop but very much Chicago: "I come from a place where you get too much money they'll shoot you/and the slim chance you make it out alive, the same n—as might salute you," David raps in a staccato burst. Paired with the simple piano line and swollen bass drum of Supreme Cuts' beat, it's a hell of an introduction to the newest corner of one of Chicago's most exciting scenes. Check it out below.