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PartyNextDoor Music

Nineteen tracks from the Toronto singer, writer and producer who supplied the blueprint that a great deal of the last decade's R&B was built from.

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PARTYNEXTDOOR

Jahron Brathwaite was the first artist signed to OVO Sound, and his influence considerably exceeds his fame. The murky, sparse, dancehall-inflected sound that dominated R&B from roughly 2014 onwards — low vocals, heavy reverb, tempos that sit between singing and rapping — is largely his invention, and a great many more famous records are built on it.

He is also a serious songwriter for other people. He co-wrote Rihanna's "Work", among other things, and his writing credits are a better measure of his importance than his own chart positions.

What makes his own records worth hearing rather than merely respecting is the atmosphere. They are genuinely unsettling in places — records about excess that never sound like they are enjoying it.

What to listen for

"Come and See Me" with Drake is the essential track and the clearest statement of the aesthetic — almost nothing in the arrangement, and an enormous amount of space around the voice.

"Not Nice" is the dancehall record and the most immediately enjoyable thing here, and "Nuh Ready Nuh Ready" with Calvin Harris does the same trick with a bigger budget.

"Break From Toronto" aside, "Never Played Me" and "Only U" are the deep-catalogue picks, and both are colder than anything on the radio at the time.

"Believe It" with Rihanna is the reunion of the writing partnership that produced her biggest single, and "Loyal" with Drake is the late-period one.

"One I Want" with Majid Jordan is the OVO family record, and "Run Up" with Major Lazer and Nicki Minaj appears three times in different remixes — including an Afrosmash version with Skales and Yung L that is better than the original.

"TRAUMA" and "THE NEWS" are the most emotionally exposed tracks on the list.

Go deeper

PARTYNEXTDOOR TWO (2014) is the album where the sound is most concentrated, and P3 is the most ambitious.

For the influence, listen to Bryson Tiller's T R A P S O U L and 6LACK's FREE 6LACK straight afterwards. The OVO Sound roster — Majid Jordan, dvsn, Roy Woods — is the immediate family.

Why he matters more than his chart positions: the sound he built — low vocals, heavy reverb, dancehall-inflected tempos, a great deal of empty space — became the default setting for R&B for most of a decade, and a great many more famous records are built on it. Check the writing credits on the era's biggest singles and his name keeps appearing.

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