Taken from this week’s Future Pop mailer. Click here to subscribe.
Toronto has become known for its R&B scene thanks to Drake and The Weeknd, and it may be about to produce its next star in the super-cool and soulful Daniel Caesar. Daniel has been collaborating with local artists since his teens, and released his first album last month at the age of 22. Although his early releases attracted a lot of buzz, and he has several videos with millions of views, the album came out on his own label, Golden City Recordings. He’s best known for the track Get You, featuring Kali Uchis, who I wrote about back in 2015. He performed recently on James Corden’s Late Late Show, as part of their Apple Music Up Next series, promoting new artists. Daniel has been strongly championed by Beats 1, and his Wikipedia is littered with references to his success on Apple Music, suggesting they may have some investment in the project. While Get You is too slow and subtle for my tastes, he’s clearly a talented performer with a great voice and a natural, classy coolness. He becomes more interesting when he taps into his gospel influences (his dad was a gospel singer and his family very religious) on tracks such as We Find Love.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYep_enmp10