Born in Kampala, Uganda, 3-Card arrived in my inbox as an completely unknown quantity. After spending this weekend with his (free) debut album Economy Class on repeat however, I feel like I now know the Toronto-based musician a litte better.

Spending time in Africa and Asia during his childhood, he would have been exposed to a wide range of musical influences – but it seems the soulful, jazzy hip hop sound of the 90′s undoubtably had the biggest impact on him as this shines through the brightest in his music.

The flying/airline concept may be something we have seen before (I immediately thought of Blink and his www.blinkairport.com project), but this project definately stands out on its own. Lower tempo instrumentals with jazzy influences to provide the canvas and 3-Card flows with such ease its hard to imagine the beat and the vocals were ever seperate. The smooth production really compliments 3-Card and allows the artist and his stories to take centre stage.

The song that stuck with me the most after stepping away from the album has to be Silly Little Things. I caught myself singing this to myself at random – while I was making breakfast, walking down the street. 3-Card serenades his lady of choice and lets her know that everything will be ok, regardless of the small fights and disagreements that come with any relationship. Something everyone will relate to, and executed to perfection. I guarantee you will have this hook stuck in your head for days:

In an album full of positives, whoever oversaw the executive production duties did a fantastic job. The production, as already mentioned, is beautiful – but the guests on the album all slotted in so naturally without ever overbearing the main artist. The carefully selected features along with the top notch mixing and mastering really come together to create a very polished final product. A good example of this is Burning Records which features the gorgeous vocals of Grier Munroe:

The album really goes from strength to strength and closes out on a very stong note with noteworthy tracks including the personal story on Strangers on A Plane, the obligatory heartfelt dedication to Mama and the boastful Curse of the Artist.

Smooth, positive, laid-back, soulful vibes – these are just a few words that come to mind as Economy Class plays in my headphones. Perfect soundtrack for a chilled out Sunday session. If the samples above weren’t enough to convince you, then a recommendation from your favourite African Hip Hop blog – 25toLyf.com - should be all you need to part with your bandwidth.

For fans of: Little Brother, Slum Village, etc.

Download Economy Class at www.harmlessdanger.com

Genre: Rap
Location Toronto, Canada, Ontario, CA
Profile Views: 9484
Last Login: 02/03/2012
Member Since 24/09/2006
Website www.harmlessdanger.com
Record Label Unsigned - Harmless Danger Records

Genre: Rap/Hip-Hop
Hometown: Kampala/Toronto
Record Label: Harmless Danger Music
General Manager : Victor Byenkya
Current Location: Toronto, Canada

Members
3-Card a.k.a Boosman (Victor Byenkya) & Aseye a.k.a My-Stro

Influences
Krukid , Lupe Fiasco, Obie Trice, Eminem, Jay-Z, Blackthought, Tupac, B.I.G, Magic System, Big L, Souljah’s Inn, K-OS, Nas, Bob Marley, Jr. Gong, Lucky Dube, Johnathon Larson, Aseye Nyaku, The Game, Ludacris, Common, Blackthought, Talib Kweli + Mos Def, Joe Buddens...and many more Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.