Beg 4 Mercy

There's not much we can say about Honour that makes complete sense. They may or may not have grown up in the US, making beats with a cousin who sang in a church band; they might have toured as a roadie with platinum-selling R&B outfit Pretty Ricky before acing regional videogame tournaments and moving to NYC; they could have sold their life story to children's book author C.S. Adler and signed to Violator management; and maybe they ended up stationed in London, working as a runner on music promos. But however plausible it is, the breadcrumb trail provides us with a detailed cultural framework for "Beg 4 Mercy", a dense fog of pop and underground references that's as inescapable as it is enticing. It's a rare debut that engulfs even the most cautious listener, sweeping through tongue-in-cheek Wild West bravado and psychedelic, overdriven club rap, bifurcating into crumbly DIY noise and vaporous euphoric soul. Sometimes barbed and cynical, but just as often deliriously warm-hearted, it's a record of contradictions that's as puzzling to unpick as the artist's baffling backstory, imprinted with more hidden messages than a Renaissance painting. Who needs to play identity bingo when the art's screaming so loudly?