A side of mainstream hip-hop has been getting darker and more psychedelic as we’ve gone further into this decade; lyrics are sometimes buried behind synths, sometimes instrumentals are constructed from loads of sounds borrowed from rock and electronic music, and then there’s the rage movement, which isn’t easy to really describe at all. Either way, plenty of singer-songwriters have taken what is now a ubiquitous trap sound and gone to an altogether more ‘pleasant’ place with it. That’s what Kaumudi Malik (Kaumayy is how you’ll find her on streaming) does on her single ‘drugs, etc.’

Here’s an essentially shy and endearing indie-pop tune that just happens to have trap drums under it; this combination is nowhere near as surprising as one might think. R&B artists have been crooning over hip-hop instrumentals for a while, and especially lately, there’s been a huge influx of alt-pop artists who have been making late-2000s era acoustic guitar-driven tunes and marrying them with rounded kicks and 808s. In fact, that is exactly what Kaumayy (with the help of producer Shikhil Bhatt) does here. It's a love song where acoustic guitars are a big part of the mix, and her vocals are very modern. They are of the type you would have heard at least a hundred times if you are given to spending some time scrolling through short-form content (you know exactly what that sound is now, don’t you?). But ‘drugs, etc.’ with all its 2024 stylings still gets by on what every song like it has had; a short runtime, simple-as-you-like melodies, and a subject that’s easy to relate to without being too heavy. One of the easier playlist-adds you will find.