Avelino has kicked off the new year with a brand new track ‘2024 Freestyle’ – check it out below.
READ MORE: Avelino on his goal to make a “classic debut album” for the streets: “I want it to last forever”
The rapper’s first release of the year features a beat from all-star producer Hit-Boy, who is known for his projects with New York rap icon Nas such as ‘Kings Disease III‘ and ‘Magic3‘. The beat serves as the foundation of Avelino’s freestyle.
“I remember leaving the label and labelling myself as a flop / I’m my own worst critic but I was critically wrong / God save the streets really saved me”, Avelino raps over the soft beat, referring to his 2023 debut album.
Directed by NathanielMedia, the song’s accompanying music video features the London rapper in a Mercedes-Benz driving around and waxing his lyrics. Towards the end of the video, he shows his awards that he has won.
The track follows his recent full length LP ‘God Save The Streets’. Speaking with NME last year about the album, the rapper was asked about the LP’s core message about finding positives in negative experiences and overcoming obstacles and if he felt like he had a responsibility to show people that pathway.
He responded: “100%. Essentially, that’s the essence of ‘God Save The Streets’, the fact that the struggle, poverty, hardship, challenges, these things have a negative connotation but depending on how you relate yourself to them, it’s very possible that these things are blessings.”
He continued: “Without struggle, how do you get stronger? It encourages resourcefulness like maybe no other circumstances would, it pushes us to dig deep… it builds our character. There’s all these advantages of struggle, and poverty, which is what essentially I’m tryna play on, all you gotta do is just shift your perspective, accept your circumstances, because you’re better off in your individual life relating yourself to a way where everything is now beneficial.”
In a personal essay written by Avelino himself for Clashmusic, the rapper wrote: “On this album, I did most of it sober, I didn’t do late studio sessions, and I was in this flow that allowed everything to fall into place. I learnt as I went along that you don’t need to overwork yourself to do great things. You need to aim, let go and do what you’ve got to do, and then things will fall into place.”
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