Fly Gypsy - Wildflower

Time for another pop quiz: what do you get when you mix Vodka & Rum? The answer, of course, is up-and-coming hip-hop duo Fly Gypsy (though I would also have accepted “part of a Long Island Iced Tea”). Made up of Russian beatsmith Alexei Jendayi and Jamaican-born emcee Komplex, the D.C.-based twosome are making their Booth debut with mixtape single Wildflower. Dedicated to a woman whose icy exterior masks a warm heart, this track boasts a beat as defiantly unconventional as the female in question; borrowing his mellow, tuneful boardwork from Puerto Rican guitar legend Jose Feliciano‘s cover of the Doors’ Light My Fire, Jendayi retains the sample’s slight Latin rhythm rather than springing for your typically booming rap percussion. The result doesn’t sound much like a hip-hop record, but Komplex’ rhymes hit home nonetheless, and the combination simply works – personally, I was sold the second the strings came in. If this inventive, genre-blending cut leaves you intrigued, you can find plenty more intoxicating jams on Fly Gypsy’s latest street album, available now for free download.