Topaz Jones - “Toothache”
~Zumi Underground
Topaz Jones is a young rapper I’ve been following for about a couple years now. He’s had one full length album, Arcade, that has a couple of solid tracks--particularly his single, “Tropicana”. Jones comes from a musical family that includes his father Kirk. The elder Jones was a funk musician from the 80s and a part of several different bands, with Slave being probably one of the more well-known ones. They had big hits such as “Just a Touch of Love” (covered by Keith Sweat in the 90s) and “Watching You” (sampled in Snoop Dogg’s “Gin & Juice”).
Let’s dig into the featured track of this post, “Toothache”. In the first few bars of the song, the funky bass line laid over a some simple piano notes makes his father’s influence apparent. Topaz’s vocals don’t even start til nearly a minute into the track, but I didn’t even mind having all that time to indulge in the funky bass line and groovy synth.
Jones first enters the track (after a bit of gyrating in a bright yellow canary-looking turtleneck and flag-looking pants, if you’re watching the video) with sing-style vocals that set the topic about a lover so sweet she causes him a toothache. He’s got some fun rhymes in there like “Chillin with them Kylie Jens / Kiss made of collagen / I see you modelin / At least get some college in” so I definitely ain’t trying to knock his lyrical ability, but the vocal highlight for me is just how well he flows everything together. I love how smoothly he transitions from one rhythm pattern to another.
Keep a look out for more from Topaz Jones. I definitely appreciate that he has these fun funky jams like “Toothache” and “Tropicana”, but don’t sleep on his conscious tracks like “Coping Mechanism” and “Gasping for Breath”.
Get more Topaz Jones on Spotify
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