PHONY PPL - UNDERRATED SUPERSTARS
Phony PPL is a rap group, a bunch of pals, a live band, and a songwriting/production team that lives for music. The group was founded in 2020 in Brooklyn, New York, and consists of Bari Bass on bass guitar, Aja Grant on the keyboard, Matt "Maffyuu" Byas on drums, Elijah Rawk on lead guitar, and Elbee Thrie on vocals. They straddle between different genres and devastate stages around the country, and their cosigners include Q-Tip, Giles Peterson, Peanut Butter Wolf, Nick Catchdubs, and Plain Pat. Throughout their various projects, the group has developed an addictive sound based on irresistible melodies, feel-good hooks, and complex musicianship. Phony PPL talks directly to a new, unexplored generation of music enthusiasts whose iPods are packed with music from all genres and periods, fusing hip-hop attitude with a pop sensibility.
Phony PPL has been releasing music since 2009, when they dropped their first album, "WTF is Phonyland?" The band's lineup was a bit different back then; members had been trickling in since the band's inception, with a maximum capacity of nine before settling on the present core five. Six years later, Rolling Stone preached "Yesterday's Tomorrow" when a reporter saw them jamming out in a New York City subway station. Three years passed before their latest album, "mō’zā-ik," was released in late 2018 under 300 Records.
Their album, "mō’zā-ik," vividly depicts the experiences and years Phony PPL has shared. It opens with Elbee's smooth vocalization of "Way Too Far," a beautiful illusion of the intensity that the remainder of the album radiates. The following two tracks, "Something About Your Love" and "Once You Say Hello," break the created haze with a buoyancy embedded in the bouncy funk rhythm, including forceful percussions that invite listeners to swing and dance. There are some notable soulful ballads on the album, such as "Think You're Mine," which has layers of afro-futurist tones and is evocative of a Paul McCartney song. "Cookie Crumble" begins with a trippy instrumental that demonstrates Aja Grant's songwriting abilities, with a symphony of strings triumphing the song in a shaky ascent directly into the next track, an instrumental interlude. Aja employed similar abilities when composing for other musicians, such as Mac Miller.
One specific song on "mō’zā-ik" has been in development for years. Elbee penned "on everythinG iii love" in 2014, and the message is still applicable today. The song opens by addressing the widespread problem of police violence against black people in America. It holds significance for Phony PPL not just because they are a group of black males but also because three of the five members have previously been arrested for minor offenses.
"Before You Get a Boyfriend" is "mō’zā-ik’s" most successful single. This song boldly displays the band's unique, unorthodox sound, combining cheerful jazz, hip-hop, and soul. It sounds like any of the five members, or people in the 90s would have blasted on their stereo systems to herald the start of Saturday cleaning. The type of music that youngsters like them would hear and groan to when they were younger — and seek out obsessively as they grew older. That is perhaps the most appealing aspect of the music created by Phony PPL: it preserves its freshness while harkening back to the sounds that made it possible.
