Malloy James - Something Died When You Left
New 15-track project entirely produced, written, composed, mixed, and mastered by James himself
Listen on Amazon, Apple Music, Spotify, & Tidal
New York, NY, January 22 - Today, emerging artist Malloy James released a new 15-track project entirely produced, written, composed, mixed, and mastered by James himself. Titled Something Died When You Left, the project blends hip-hop, neo-soul, psych-rock, and R&B to create a narrative and mood that channels an old-school feel and creates a world that is uniquely contemporary and fresh.
"Something Died When You Left is composed as an emotional scrapbook, telling a web of meaningful stories happening at the same time around the world. The project is an articulation of what it feels like to be young, black, and creative in a space and time where the vision of what that looks like is shifting and blurred," noted James. "Something Died When You Left is about the feeling that everything, every part of life, is happening at the same time: you're feeling annoyed about your day at the same time someone is spending a week in Shibuya, someone else is romancing his girl at a lake house at the beginning of a relationship, and someone else is telling his girl he needs space. Everything is happening at the same time, and every time something ends, something begins again."
Blending hip-hop, neo-soul, psych-rock, and R&B, James channels influences including Erykah Badu, Lenny Kravitz, Solange Knowles, and Pharrell Williams to create soulful tracks that build a unique mood, narrative, and energy. Something Died When You Left is constructed as a series of vignettes, channeling different characters around the world searching for love, meaning, joy, and purpose. Key tracks include:
- The Lake House (here on Spotify and Apple Music): A sexy, smooth track with mellow raps over nostalgic R&B chords and progressions, comparing a woman to a lakehouse in its luxury, energy, and aspiration.
- Supa Fly (Blxck Bxy) (here on Spotify and Apple Music): An energetic hip-hop anthem for Black men, celebrating the joy of being young, black, gifted, and fly.
- Southern California (here on Spotify and Apple Music): An ode to the ambiance of Southern California, a dreamy, ethereal track full of double meaning, a call for calm, healing, and hope.
- Westside Love Letter (here on Spotify and Apple Music): A soulful, alt R&B track describing a love letter of a bi-costal romance.
- See Yor Self (Plane Window) (here on Spotify and Apple Music): A deeply neo-soul influenced track reflecting on self growth, aspirations, and personal histories.
Malloy James is a Harlem-bred, Juilliard-trained musician and professional mix engineer. His work is reflective of a diverse and varied personal background that includes a family story deeply reflective of the Black American experience and a stint as a professional basketball player in France. The project is at once personal and global, local and international, spanning disciplines, mediums, and time periods.
Something Died When You Left showcases James’s perspective, style, and form with a new energy, channeling a narrative and mood that feels simultaneously of another era and distinctly contemporary.
Music videos associated with the project will be released in the coming weeks; more information to follow.
About Malloy James
Rooted deeply in hip hop and neo-soul, Malloy James’s work taps into an electronic, psychedelic vibe, with modern trap & rock influences also playing a part. These varied influences build a sound that is a unique mix of fun, contemplative, sexy, and reflective, layering original compositions and samples to create a seductive sound that is both fresh and familiar.
A formally-trained sound engineer influenced by the conceptual and virtuosic practices of artists like Pharrell Williams, Erykah Badu, Kanye West, Lenny Kravitz, Solange, Kid Cudi, Lauryn Hill, and Childish Gambino, Malloy James embodies an open, fluid, artistic, and engaging approach to contemporary hip hop composition and style.
Prior to Something Died When You Left, James released three significant projects — Brunch with Chanel, The Shallows, and Atelier 8 — and collaborated with artists including Bohan Phoenix, Wev, Steezy, and slodown.
Malloy James is a Harlem-bred, classically-trained musician with a master’s degree in music composition from Juilliard and an undergraduate degree from Parsons. His work is reflective of a diverse and varied personal background that includes a family story deeply reflective of the Black American experience and a stint as a professional basketball player in France.
In addition to his solo artistic practice, James is an accomplished sound designer, creating ethereal compositions for projects with Lexus International, the National Building Museum, and the Miami Design District, to name a few.
He is also a visual artist, working primarily in painting and photography; his work has been shown in group exhibitions across the US and Europe.