Tag: Kartel Music Group

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Salimo Shares Breezy “Jelly”

Montréal-based artist Salimo is a rising Francophone emcee. In a relatively short period of time, he has captured the attention of media outlets across both his hometown and Québec, and he has already amassed an impressive array of live dates under his belt: The Montréal-based artist has opened for Niska, Youssoupha, MAES, Gims, Sofiane, Soolking and a list of others. He has also played Francofoiles de Montréal — including a headlining set at the festival, making him the youngest artist to date to ever headlining in the festival’s history. He has also played Festival Marocain de Laval, Fête Nationale du Maroc au Parc Jarry and M for Montréal.

Salimo has amassed over 10 million streams across digital streaming platforms and millions of views on YouTube, adding his name to a growing list of Quebecois rappers, who have received attention across the Francophone world.

The Montréal-based rapper’s sophomore album is slated for a November 4, 2023 through Kartel Music Group/Sony Music Canada. The album’s latest single “Jelly” is a breezy, hook-driven, club and lounge friendly bop featuring an ethereal, reggaeton-inspired production featuring skittering and shuffling beats, a looped, strummed Flamenco-like acoustic guitar sample serving as a lush bed for Salimo’s effortless, subtly Autotuned delivery. May this one be a reminder of summer warmth — and flirting with pretty young things at the club.

Directed by Disjoncté Productions, the slick and stylishly shot accompanying video for “Jelly” follows the rising Montréal-based rapper through some gorgeous locales in one of my favorite cities, including a stunning view of Montréal’s skyline and Vieux Port from the other side of the St. Lawrence River.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Born in Beirut, Lebanon to an Irish-American father and a British mother, who was of Arabic and Italian origin, singer/songwriter and actor Michael Malarkey grew up in Yellow Springs, OH. He  eventually relocated to London, where he studied at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art. As the story goes, while studying acting and drama, Malarkey began to immerse himself in music and songwriting, which he found to be a form of poetic journalism and an endless journey of self-discovery.  Interestingly, although Malarkey may be best known for playing Enzo in CW‘s The Vampire Diaries and Captain Michael Quinn in the History Channel‘s Robert Zemeckis-executive produced Project Blue Book, he has managed to simultaneously carve out a separate career as a singer/songwriter.

Malarkey’s full-length debut 2017’s Mongrels was released through Cap on Cat Records to critical applause from Metro, Billboard, Classic Rock, and The Guardian. The album’s material thematically explored the duality of his nature and that of human nature in general. Recorded by Malarkey along with Tom Tapley and Brandon Bush in Atlanta, and from album title track “Mongrel,” the material possesses a subtle old-school Nashville/country vibe that further emphasizes the introspective nature of the song and of the album’s material.

Malarkey’s sophomore full-length album Graveracer is slated for a February 10, 2020 release through Cap on Cat Records/Kartel Music Group.  The album’s material was written in 2018 in Puerto Rico and Vancouver while the singer/songwriter and actor was working on the 50 Cent-produced crime drama The Oath and Project Blue Booth. That period was one of a physical and emotional turbulence: Malarkey, along with the cast and crew were evacuated from Puerto Rico during the build up of Hurricane Maria. And understandably, that experience has reportedly bled into the material’s lyrical imagery. “During the time I was working on the record, I escaped two hurricanes – as well as a third, I suppose, my own personal one. This record is my Odyssey in a way. It’s the journey back home after being ravaged in the seas of your own mind and finding the strength to carry on after the storm. I was left with a feeling of freedom and I found it through these songs,” the singer/songwriter and actor says in press notes.

Recorded at Sheffield, UK-based Tesla Studios and co-produced by Michael Malarkey and singer/songwriter A.A. Williams, Graveracer is reportedly centered around a straightforward, heartfelt honesty in its songwriting and tone with the material being reflective without leaning on nostalgia and forward-thinking without being urgent; in fact, it’s rooted in the present, as a portrait of one complex and flawed person, as a work in progress — as we all are.

“Shake the Shiver,” Graveracer‘s latest single is a sparse and brooding single, centered around Malarkey’s sonorous baritone,  atmospheric synths, a simple yet propulsive backbeat, a sinuous bass line, strummed guitar and a razor sharp hook. And while recalling Daughn Gibson and Jace Everett, the track manages to be seductive yet full of a dark and creeping, existential dread.