Here are my top 10 tracks for March, click the link below the first couple of them to read/listen to the full top 10, and enjoy

Valee – Shell 

Starting off this month is a song I played about 500 times by a newer (at least to me) artist from Chicago, Valee. Clocking in at barely over a minute and a half, I love the simplicity and minimalism used here. I have to give credit to one of my favorite blogs, somanyshrimp.com  as I first heard this on Episode 5 of their great new podcast that they put up every couple of Sundays now. The plot of the story can be condensed into Valee describing a trip to a Shell gas station. As someone who spends a lot of time on the road I can certainly appreciate the appeal of taking a break walking into a Shell or Exxon to grab a cool beverage, although admittedly mine aren’t usually as syruppy as Valee’s.  My favorite part is the description of the Margielas as ‘bumpy Margielles, feel like braille’ something about this description of them makes them sound so luxurious. Also of note in the video is the nice old school Chevy that Valee is taking out for a ride from a very anonymous looking storage unit.

Ripp Flamez – Church in the Projects

I found out about this song on one of my favorite sites, and one I feel like I’ve been checking for as long as I can remember, Dirty Glove . This whole mixtape, Project Melodies, by Ripp Flamez is incredible and very different than anything else out right now, and definitely deserves more views/listens than it already has. I don’t know a lot about the artist Ripp Flamez but he is from Ohio and has a really unique voice/delivery it’s almost more singing than rapping. I could have went with a number of songs from this mixtape for my March Top 10, including standouts like ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Blurry’ but I decided to go with the project’s finale, ‘Church in the Projects’ because overall it was the best track to me and was haunting and alluring all at once. You’ll have to listen to it for yourself but there’s just something resilient that stops you in your tracks about the opening/chorus as he sings ‘I keep my hand on the Bible/they won’t understand I’m a man from the projects/I won’t stand through the nonsense/I’m just a man from a land full of violence.”

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