Though Brent Faiyaz did not release his new album Wasteland this year, he has been quite busy releasing a bunch of loose singles and EPs as well as a plethora of features to hold fans over until the album is ready. Here’s a recap of all the music he has released this year all in one place.
Brent Faiyaz – Solo
Released: January 14th
Kendrick Lamar and Dave Free’s PgLang teamed up with Calvin Klein for a commercial campaign featuring commercials from rapper Baby Keem, model Mecca Allah, comedian Taco, and Brent Faiyaz where he performs a short melodic piece before abruptly ending the song by saying “Y’all blew it”.
Brent Faiyaz & DJ Dahi – Gravity (feat. Tyler, the Creator)
Released: January 29th
The first piece of music released by Brent Faiyaz was in collaboration with DJ Dahi, Steve Lacy on guitar, and a verse by rapper Tyler, the Creator. The song was released through the Adidas Songs From Scratch campaign that has combined artists to collaborate like Mura Masa and Moses Boyd, Smino and Terrace Martin, Brasstracks and Khalid, and plenty of others. For the track itself, Brent Faiyaz sings about how he doesn’t want a girl to have to wait around for him and believes they need to move on while Tyler raps about fame and how his traveling affects his relationship. It’s a psychedelic and guitar-heavy R&B track, and DJ Dahi’s production compliments Brent’s vocals quite well.
Brent Faiyaz – DO NOT LISTEN
Released: February 9th
It took less than two weeks for Brent to release more music for the fans. This time he uploaded a new song entitled “CIRCLES” featuring a sample of Purr as the outro on his YouTube channel. The description contained a dropbox link entitled DO NOT LISTEN featuring not only “CIRCLES” but the songs “PAPER SOLDIER” featuring Joony and “PRICE OF FAME”. “CIRCLES” features a mellow beat with a string-like instrument swaying in the background featuring Brent trading off with himself on his normal vocal as well as some pitched down vocals. The outro from Purr comes from the intro song from their 2020 album Like New which adds a unique Indie Pop outro to the song. “PAPER SOLDIERS” is a standard Alternative R&B track with some clean drums with Brent giving off a melodic rap performance on the front-end of the track with rapper Joony delivering a verse at the end. “PRICE OF FAME” closes off the EP features a chopped and screwed version of the track at the start before transitioning to the normal speed where the heavily-reverbed chimes echo in the background while being accompanied by slick 808s. 3 minutes into the song, it transitions into a completely different track where Brent sounds more vulnerable. It’s the strongest moment on the EP and Brent’s performance on this outro might be his best performance ever. It’s emotional and touching. I can only hope this song is featured on his next album.
Brent Faiyaz – Eden
Released: February 16th
“Eden” was released only a week later through ESPN and Hollywood Records as a piece to their Black History Always EP from their Music For the Movement series which according to ESPN “features reimagined, historically significant songs, as well as an original song and a spoken word piece, made by and for Black America with contemporary artists. The message of hope is that everyone sees the beauty and history in Black culture. Each track has original artwork, created by Black artists.” The track “Eden” is a stripped-back guitar-based track that is used as a talk with God asking him why he never helps out with the world when it struggles and prevents all the pain people have to feel. The song is sad, beautiful, and extremely touching.
Brent Faiyaz – Show U Off
Released: March 12th
“Eden” and “Show U Off” are both introspective and unique to Brent’s discography. Produced by the other two members of Sonder (Atu and Dpat), “Show U Off” is a wholesome look into the women in his life and the people who helped raise him and made him who he is. He released the track during International Women’s Month and released a music video that included the important family members of his life. It’s beautifully written and quite sentimental. Also, the drums do not drop until 2 minutes and 38 seconds into the song after building into them the entire time, and it’s genuinely emotional.
Sonder – TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG
Released: April 7th
I’ve been waiting to hear more from Sonder since their last loose single “What You Heard” in 2019. TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG is a short EP similar to their 3 EPs from 2016 which contains a continuous mix of short bite-sized tracks. In its 13-minute run time, Brent Faiyaz croons over the 6 tracks with dark and moody tracks produced by Atu and Dpat. I cannot wait for the trio to release another full-length project in the future.
Sonder & Jorja Smith – Nobody But You
Released: April 9th
Though TOO LATE TO DIE YOUNG was never released on streaming, “Nobody But You” with Jorja Smith was released separately from the EP. In the song, the two go back and forth singing about heartbreak over a slow and mellow instrumental.
Tyler, the Creator – Sweet / I Thought You Wanted to Dance (feat. Brent Faiyaz & Fana Hues)
Released: June 25th
Tyler, the Creator’s newest album has a plethora of excellent features. On “Sweet / I Thought You Wanted to Dance”, Brent is featured throughout the “Sweet” portion of the song including the bridge, the outro, and some background vocals throughout. He is an excellent addition to the smooth and upbeat track.
Brent Faiyaz – Wasting Time (feat. Drake)
Released: July 1st
In collaboration with the famous producer-duo The Neptunes, which features Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, Brent Faiyaz and Drake released “Wasting Time” in the middle of the summer. Through the tracks 5 minutes, Brent Faiyaz delivers a smooth and melodic performance while Drake gives a long and heartfelt rap verse on the back-end of the track. The track has an early 2000s feeling to it from The Neptunes’ stylistic production while feeling modern and smooth.
Dpat – Pray For Me
Released: September 5th
Dpat’s solo work is always impressive, and on “Pray For Me”, a standalone instrumental for Dpat’s upcoming album, Dpat enlisted Brent Faiyaz to contribute background harmonies and hums to the lo-fi-Esque instrumental. It sounds like a Sonder instrumental but works well without any main vocals on the track.
Tems – Found (feat. Brent Faiyaz)
Released: September 14th
Tems herself has had a major year with the attention the track Essence by Wizkid has gotten especially after Justin Bieber released a remix in the middle of this year. Tems capitalized on her newly found fans fast by releasing If Orange Was A Place with the track Found featuring Brent Faiyaz. On the R&B/Afrobeat mixed track, Brent and Tems showcase their fantastic chemistry on this track perfect for a calm summer day
Baby Keem – Lost Souls (feat. Brent Faiyaz)
Released: September 22nd
Baby Keem’s A Melodic Blue received a lot of attention for featuring two verses by Kendrick Lamar, but on a deluxe version of the album, Baby Keem enlists Brent Faiyaz for a remix of the song Lost Souls. Initially, the original song was going to feature Brent Faiyaz, but he sent his verse too late to be on the original release. Brent takes over the third verse and slides over the verse adding a nice change of pace to the song.
Meek Mill – Halo (feat. Brent Faiyaz)
Released: October 1st
Meek Mill released his first album since 2018’s Championships with Expensive Pain. Brent is featured on the closer entitled “Halo” where Meek Mill discusses the grief he’s witnessed all his life from hood violence and how social media has taken over the world we live in. Brent’s chorus and outro help carry Meek’s message home.
Brent Faiyaz – MERCEDES
Released: December 3rd
The last song from Brent this year finally teases his upcoming album (as well as being sold as an NFT…). The production and drum pattern on this track is truly unique and interesting while still being chilled out thanks to Atu. On the track, Brent talks about how being in a relationship with him is not always sunny and bright, and he has no intention of settling down with anyone. It’s a great closer to his packed year.
Seeing how jam-packed 2021 is, I cannot wait to see what Brent has in-store for 2022. I am excited to see other ways he will progress his sound in the future.
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