Mula B Essentials

Mula B’s heritage offers a clue to his eclectic sound: a half Moroccan, half Congolese gravel-throated rapper who grew up in the Netherlands, his emotional hip-hop combines African elements with western trap tremors. On the Palenkobeatz-produced “Bandalero”, he cuts a sombre figure, spilling descending Auto-Tuned melodies over nylon-string guitar loops and booming Atlanta bass, reliving sorrowful street stories in engrossing Dutch language rhymes. “Gang” features Eurotrance rave synths, while the steel drum-lined “Struggle” pits his gritty vocals against Nigerian Afrobeat-indebted rhythms.