There are quite a few people who will complain that contemporary hip-hop is dead; however, what many of those people shamefully have missed is that hip-hop has quietly gone through a revolution similar to the late 80s and early 90s in which artists are experimenting with the boundaries of what hip-hop should sound like, what it should look like, and what it should talk about thematically. Of course, you still have the street shit but you also have a number of artists talking about things that artists hadn’t talked about much in the 80s. In the case of Brooklyn-based emcee and producer Fore, he’s spent time on four different continents before he turned 18. and as a result he was naturally exposed to a variety of cultures, experiences and sounds; in fact, he’s claimed the Cocteau Twins, Big L, Big Pun, Nas, and Armadou and Miriam as influences on his sound. But thematically, as you’ll hear off “Hometown,” the first single off his forthcoming full-length, The Stranger his lyrics concern themselves with the immigrant experience, questions of identity when you’re a stranger in a foreign land, and of self-doubt among others, with an emotional honesty and a complex rhyme scheme. 

Sonically, the song employs the use of an ambient soundscape consisting of swirling electronics, and a mournful piano and horn sample that reminds me quite a bit of Steven A. Clark’s Fornication Under Consent of the King.