When I think of Kari Faux, I automatically think of Schoolboy Q’s Oxymoron. It’s weird, but that’s just how my brain works. No, Kari Faux was not featured on that album and I’m pretty sure the two have never worked together. However, the word “faux” has always meant “fake” to me and there’s nothing that has ever sounded fake about her music or her persona. As a result, it just feels like an oxymoron.
From the time I first heard her voice on Childish Gambino’s “No Small Talk” in 2014, she’s always come across as genuine, honest and confident. Fast forward six or seven years, the feeling is still the same and it comes through on her newest project, Lowkey Superstar (Deluxe).
Released last year as an eight-song endeavor, Kari Faux’s Lowkey Superstar felt like a gumbo of sounds that seamlessly flowed together. Throughout the project, she experimented with funk, pop, R&B and Hip-Hop, but it all felt authentic to her.
“I brought all the elements of different sounds that I play with into an easily digestible eight-song mixtape,” she said while speaking to Pitchfork.
More than a year later, she’s taking the core of the original project and evolved it into this full-length album that features Deante’ Hitchcock, Smino and JID. Oftentimes, revitalizing older projects and morphing them into full albums doesn’t work, but Kari Faux manages to make it work because it feels like the favorite cousin of the original one. They’re different, but they’re definitely related. Don’t believe me? Check out the full project below.
