Portland, Oregon hip-hop artists Luck-One recently dropped his new mixtape “King Of The Northwest.” If you listen to entire project, the title is a mere state of mind that Luck-One was in while recording. He feels ready, his skills are getting sharper, and his sound is diversifying. When I lived in Portland a few years ago, it was impossible to escape seeing his name on some sort of ad for his project with producer Dekk titled “Beautiful Music.” This mixtape is a step outside of the sound we found on that project that was a more jazzy and soulful. King Of The Northwest is a testament to where Luck-One is at the current moment and a transformation to becoming a more versatile artist. He has always been a talented lyricist but some of the beats found on this CD can satisfy a more commercial audience, which is necessary for survival in the mainstream.
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Luck-One doesn’t sacrifice substance in his lyrical content, but keeps his flow on point and intertwines emotions and topics that we can all relate to. My personal favorite track on the mixtape is “Breakthrough,” which uses a Mac Miller instrumental as a backdrop for Luck-One to describe where he is at now, and where he wishes to go. Any individual who is following a dream can relate to the flow that Luck-One lays down. The track after Breakthrough, “Can’t Get Over You,” features a sound that won’t disappoint the Beautiful Music fans with an 80’s soulful sound.
This project will surprise some Northwest music fans with solid lyrics and features from other known Northwest artists such as Sol and Fatal Lucciauno. I feel this project is the first step for Luck-One into a new direction sound wise and a more positive feel overall. Luck-One has no doubt always been talented but listeners sometimes get lost in his political and religious topics that were more upfront on past projects. If Luck-One keeps finding a way to be himself and has a little more consistency amongst production, you should definitely be seeing his name more often. Luck-One is no doubt talented and it is safe to say that the King of The Northwest’s next few releases will make some noise.
You can check Luck-One out on Twitter @LuckOne and on his website www.luckoneconscious.com You can download the whole “King of the Northwest” album here.
