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Anderson Paak VibeZ

A drummer who sings, a singer who raps, and one of the last genuine bandleaders in popular music. Twenty-nine tracks of Anderson .Paak.

Oxnard's finest

Brandon Paak Anderson grew up in Oxnard, California, in circumstances he has been unusually candid about — a father imprisoned, a mother imprisoned, a period of homelessness with a young family while he was working on a marijuana farm. He played drums in church, which is where the whole thing starts.

His breakthrough came through Dr. Dre, who put him on six tracks of Compton in 2015, immediately followed by Malibu, the album that established him. What made him distinctive was the combination: a rasping, joyful voice; a rapper's sense of rhythm; and the fact that he performs sitting behind a drum kit, which almost nobody in R&B does.

Then came Silk Sonic with Bruno Mars — a full-scale 1970s soul revival project that won Record and Song of the Year at the Grammys and was, by any measure, a very large commercial risk that paid off completely.

What to listen for

"The Season | Carry Me" is the essential track — a two-part suite from Malibu covering his whole biography, and the best single piece of writing he has done.

"Come Down" is the funk showcase, "Lockdown" the protest record written during the 2020 uprisings, and "Leave The Door Open" the Silk Sonic moment that reintroduced a generation to the sound of Philadelphia soul.

"The Waters" with BJ The Chicago Kid and "Jet Black" with Brandy are the strongest features on his own records.

His guest work is where his versatility shows: Mac Miller's "Dang!" — a genuinely great record, and poignant now — Nas's "All Bad," Cordae's "Two Tens," Ab-Soul and James Blake on "Bloody Waters," and SiR's "New LA."

Go deeper

Malibu (2016) is the album, and it should be heard whole. Ventura (2019) is the smoothest; Oxnard the most divisive.

Silk Sonic's An Evening with Silk Sonic is short, immaculate and a great deal of fun.

His NxWorries project with producer Knxwledge is the one most people miss and possibly the best thing he has been involved in — Yes Lawd! is a masterpiece of dusty, sample-based soul.

For the tradition: Sly Stone, Curtis Mayfield and Bobby Womack are the obvious ancestors, and the drummer-frontman lineage runs through Levon Helm and Karen Carpenter — a very short list.

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