The young Brooklyn rapper Medhane is a friend and collaborator of Earl Sweatshirt and MIKE. He's just self-released a fantastic album suitably called Own Pace. As a body of work, it's more mellow than anything he's done before - he raps with softness and determination. On the final track '2020sht', he teams up with maassai who gives us a steady and eloquent rap in the first half of the track. Production is smooth and calm, with jazz melodies and a relaxed beat. Like a lot of artists, it seems that Medhane uses music as a necessary means of self expression; he pours himself into the mic with honesty and a slick stream of consciousness: "Know this game takes patience, my heart racing.. fighting to be free, here for the peace. keep the grass the clipped so the snakes and the rats and rough patches can't catch us". In the repeated lines towards the end of the song, there's a cathartic, mantra-like quality: "bring fire light matches, bring wire for the madness...everything past tense". -Ellie Rose-Davies