FADER PREMIERE
The odd, 23-year-old Australian to be inducted into Chicago's Teklife crew alongside footworkers like Rashad, Spinn and Manny, Brooklyn's Alexander Shaw says he splits his time between oil painting and recording off-kilter party tracks under the name LiL JaBBA. He put out his first LP on Local Action, the label of FACT Magazine Editor in Chief Tom Lea, and says he has another one coming soon on Matador imprint True Panther. Here's a walking-paced number he finished last week, exemplifying his knack for counterintuitive chord changes and faux-analog, global percussion sounds. "As far as "Skates" goes, it's kind of an iced over cave Riddim," says Shaw of the track. "I imagine a slab of ice being pushed around on the surface of a frozen lake, a yeti sitting in a frozen ice cave watching little frozen dew drops Plinking off the stalagmites—something like that. I'd have a yeti rap over it lol."
Stream: LiL JaBBA, "Skates"]