2023 spawns an incredible beginning for hip-hop. Eighteen adventures of sound have been unleashed upon us from emcee/producer Ilajide. As we kick of this year with this journey, we travel through a vocal-less landscape full of waves that bounce, and vibes that trounce.

“No Saucepan Tuesdays” grabs your attention before you even begin to listen with its “cooking” cover artwork. Yet beyond judging the release by it’s cover in a good way, you press play, entering “Ghetto Child” and are immediately infused with sounds, samples, and a first impression that will have beat lovers and emcees alike bobbing their heads.

The initial isn’t all we’ve got here though, and additional standout tracks are found more often than not with cuts likes “Lay Ya Down Ez”, “Music Man”, “Indynsumrluv”, & “Untl 45” being some of my most enjoyable listens.

Elements of jazz, lo-fi, hip-hop and synths are combined effortlessly throughout, and Ilajide offers up nearly an hour of material that had me transition between wanting to vibe out or freestyle song concepts out loud.

If I had to choose a weak point it would be “Quimbara”. I didn’t hate it, but the salsa dance invoking thoughts it brought on seemed slightly out of place to me, compared to the rest of “No Saucepan Tuesdays”.

That’s quite alright though, for I was immediately met with what ended up be my favorite overall pick of the release. “Indynsumrluv” made me feel like I was playing a new Mario game level that traverses through a land of jazzy nightclubs. After my first front-to-back playthrough, I found myself coming back to it ,and have replayed it about six times already as I write this.

I reached out to Ilajide curious about the inspiration behind the release and learn more. Here is what he had to say…

COMMi$$ION: What was the inspiration and or motivation behind “No Saucepan Tuesdays” and if there is one thing you would want the listener to take away with it what would that be?

Ilajide: The inspiration came from how I view my studio. I view it as the kitchen sometimes, other times it’s a laboratory. The common denominator is the cook-up. I be in that boy COOKIN them beats. Like all fire. Like so fire it ain’t even a damn pan it’s like how tf he make that without a saucepan 😭. That’s literally how it came up.

It’s also in theme with my previous releases, HEET Tape, 5 Week Heet, and now No Saucepan Tuesdays. I been on fire for a lil minute now 😭