From the Papatoetoe suburbs comes smooth flowing hip hop artist bKidd. His EP ‘The Milkman’ (five tracks plus some hilarious skits*) is an artistic expression of six months spent working as a milkman and delivers the story of a struggling delivery guy.

The EP oozes with charm and authenticity, achieved by utilising his suburban South Auckland voice as opposed to any faux-American accent, and references to his Papatoetoe upbringing, shouting out ‘Pap-City’ and his ‘uces’ in the single Milky (produced by Ayramz). Little touches like these show the love bKIDD has put into this release for his local community.

Adding to the charm of this EP are the skits between tracks that present the narrative. Helping to make these skits work so well is the musical accompaniment behind the dialogue, mainly consisting of an early 1900s-style orchestral soundtrack, implying the retro trope that ‘The Milkman’ aesthetic is based on.

From soulful first track, All I Need (feat. Avii), to the punchy last Up (feat. Poetik) the beats are light in instrumentation and implement an almost boom bap feel to the drum samples, while not compromising the powerful clarity of modern drum sample production.

Moreover, the EP doesn’t make use of any harsh synths or samples like much popular hip hop of today, instead favouring light and cruisy chord progressions that encourage relaxed head bopping. Though very short at under 15 minutes, no second is wasted, making for a well put-together collection of tracks that chronicles bKidd’s story.

*The skits will be on the hard copy CDs only as bKidd couldn’t get clearance to upload onto Spotify, iTunes etc.