We’re Really Happy We Didn’t Miss out on Son Little [video]

I found this song late in the game through the old classic method of music discovery — a homemade mixed CD from a friend. Son Little (Aaron Livingston) is an artist from Philadelphia and has collaborated previously with Philly heavyweights The Roots and RJD2. With a career that has had its ups and downs, he really caught his stride again with his latest EP, Things I Forgot, and more specifically with his toe-tapping single, “The River”. Using the respective strengths of his former collaborators, this tightly produced track seamlessly combines elements of modern hip hop and R&B with gravelly vocals and ripping guitar licks ostensibly transported from the 1950s. Lyrically the song digs deeply into an instance of temptation in Livingston’s life, represented in the video clip for the song based on the 1993 film The Pelican Brief, starring Julia Roberts and Denzel Washington. The rest of Son Little’s Things I Forgot EP is out now on Anti Records.