2023 Year End Praise
“Sharing a common ancestor, jazz and hip-hop ought to be a natural fit — but nobody has ever quite made this fusion feel like theirs. Enter Kassa Overall, the soft-spoken drummer, producer and M.C., who plays a different game.”
— New York Times
“The “backpack jazz” approach of this drummer-producer-rapper reaches its ultimate form on ANIMALS, a sleek, soulful album jam-packed with features”
— NPR
“On Animals, Seattle rapper and drummer Kassa Overall astounded as both a wordsmith and a metronome with guests like Danny Brown and Vijay Iyer.”
— Vulture
“Overall excels not simply as a magnetic singular force, but also as a bandleader with a distinct vision.” —San Francisco Chronicle
“The studio mad scientist and a cast of well-curated contributors run wild with some of [Kassa’s] most avant-garde impulses.”
— Seattle Times
“Intersecting jazz arrangements with languid hip-hop beats, electronica and inscrutable experimentation, Animals feels explorative and wholly new.”
— The Vinyl Factory
“All over the place in the best way possible… Kassa Overall ties up every possible knot…ANIMALS is a journey and it’s very well worth taking.”
— Brooklyn Vegan
2023 Best of Lists
The New York Times: Best Jazz Albums of 2023
NPR - Best Songs of 2023
Brooklyn Vegan - 10 Great Jazz Albums from 2023
All Music - Favorite Jazz Albums of 2023
Seattle Times - 15 Best Albums of 2023 by Washington State Artists
San Francisco Chronicle - Best Albums of 2023
MOJO - 50 Best Albums of 2021
Critical praise for ANIMALS
“The pieces of Overall's brilliance have been there from the beginning, but never had he combined them to more thrilling effect than on Animals”
— Grammy.com
"It’s astounding how well these equal parts all mold into a clearly crafted work that defies clear genre. Animals is doing a lot ,and it’s doing it very well.”
— Downbeat
"Kassa Overall’s music sounds free. On Animals, the drummer, producer, MC, and bandleader demonstrates the limitless potential of jazz, hip-hop, and beats, exploring and pushing new spaces for improvisation and experimentation.”
— PopMatters
“ANIMALS continues seamlessly, using a raft of guest musicians and rappers, its rhythms shuttling between drum kit and electronica…an album of real artistry.” ★★★★
— The Observer
“A multifaceted sound…The album’s vigorous jazz, rap and soul blends live instruments with electronic drum tracks.”
— The New York Times
“Kassa’s back again, leading his own band and doing what he always does — pushing musical boundaries and finding new ways to express himself through a unique blend of experimental hip-hop-infused jazz.”
— NPR
“It's very rare that the jazz guys get the hip hop thing right, and Kassa Overall has done it. The Roots did it back in the day, A Tribe Called Quest did it, DOOM, Madlib, Dilla, Kassa.”
— Gilles Peterson on BBC 6Music
“A bold career highlight, that's dizzyingly inventive on the surface, with a powerful, emotional undertow.” ★★★★
— MOJO
“ meticulously crafted record”
— UNCUT
“Although attempts to fuse jazz and hip-hop date back to the ’80s, Overall’s version is uniquely personal and impassioned, locating new musical forms for the struggles that his lyrics describe.”
— Slant Magazine
“A jazz-rap zinger, full of vigour and vim and verve, the combination of pitched-up Quasimoto-style adlibs and spiralling piano is as perfect a cocktail as you’ll taste all year.”
— Loud & Quiet
Critical praise for Kassa Overall
“One of modern jazz music’s most audacious futurists”
— Pitchfork
“It's very rare that the jazz guys get the hip hop thing right, and Kassa Overall has done it. The Roots did it back in the day, A Tribe Called Quest did it, DOOM, Madlib, Dilla, Kassa.”
— Gilles Peterson (BBC 6Music)
“Kassa is a pre-eminent style bender and blender, successfully juxtaposing genres through his production expertise and use of melodic and harmonic forms that deftly integrate the new with the old.”
— Grammy-winning drummer Terri Lyne Carrington for The New York Times
“Kassa Overall is not the first musician to address the boundaries between jazz and hip-hop, but he is among the most visionary in trying to erase them”
— AllMusic
“[Kassa’s] artistic arc is increasingly taking him into creative spaces without easy categorization.”
— Afropunk