Kassa Overall - I THINK I'M GOOD (2020)

On I Think I'm Good, the second full-length from Seattle-raised, Brooklyn-based drummer and composer, Kassa Overall, the fast-rising musician masterfully dissolves the barriers between hip hop and jazz music. Taking cues from Karriem Riggins, Madlib and Flying Lotus, Overall matches jazz improvisation with beatmaker ingenuity. He’s ambitious as much as he is accomplished, dicing with serious subject matter as he leaps between the record’s soulful, kaleidoscope trip of ideas.

The record features a cadre of New York’s brightest up and comers, including Joel Ross and Morgan Guerin, as well as some of its big hitters, such as Brandee Younger and Theo Croker. It even features an especially recorded cameo from legendary activist and author Dr. Angela Davis.

It’s an album that speaks to the contemporary state of America. Overall wrestles with the abhorrent American prison system, the ebbs and flows of romantic relationships, and his experiences of grappling with mental health and hospitalisation. I Think I'm Good conveys a singular feeling of intimacy, a byproduct of Overall’s indie hustle and uncanny at-home and on-the-fly production methods. It’s the perfect vehicle for Overall’s delicate meditations, weighing up emotions of despair, but never drowning out the feeling of a fragile but vital hope.