With new videos from Maarquii and Karma Rivera and tracks by TYuS and Eso.Xo.Supreme, here’s the latest in Portland hip-hop and R&B.
Karma Rivera, “TOG”
Karma Rivera recently posted a hard-to-ignore lyric video for a song called “TOG,” which stands for “That’s on God.” Produced by Deadbrainz and Jack Kennedy, “TOG” clocks in at less than two minutes, but it’s packed with punchlines about being a tough bitch with goals, and being “so low-key like Kung Fu Kenny/Sip horchata with the henny.” My favorite line: “We go like gin and tonic/Late 20s, we don’t vomit.” Previously only available on YouTube, the song just became available on Soundcloud and will be on other streaming platforms soon. Another thing to look out for is Rivera’s music video for “Not Yours,” which happens to be one of my favorite songs on her debut EP, Don’t Sleep on This. (It even landed in my top 100 Spotify songs of 2018.)
