RCA Records Presents: Miguel - "nwa.hollywooddreams.coffee EP" (Untitled Soundcloud EP)
Not entirely unlike the three-volume Art Dealer Chic EP set released leading up to his 2012 commercial break-through, Kaleidoscope Dream, Miguel suddenly uploaded a three-track EP to Soundcloud in the wee hours of Friday morning; seemingly titled either nwa.hollywoodreams.coffee EP or WILD EP, similar to the tattoo scrawled across Miguel's knuckles on the rather suggestive album cover. It's a painfully brief 10-minute burst of guitar-fueled Soul-Funk/R&B, part of which okayplayer effectively refers to as "a swagged-out Spaghetti Western with Curtis Mayfield wheeling and dealing on the score, driven by fuzzy guitar and total impropriety." EP opener, "NWA" features Snoop Dogg-affiliated Philly rapper Kurupt atop a stuttering 808 drumbeat and slinky guitar-accented quasi-rocker flanked by Miguel's seductive hook and bridge refrains, "she just wanna ride with a N.W.A... Got you walkin' with a gangsta lean." "NWA" is then followed my a like-minded track, "HollywoodDreams," which seems to be a tale about the highs and lows, and the perils, of celebrity; "Lost angel with an urgent silence / Changing eyes, and lipstick in fixation / Sweet Hollywood sight, you're my salvation."
Roughly the last 20-30 seconds of "HollywoodDreams" features a rather bizarre fade-in into WILD EP's closing track and likely lead single from Miguel's forthcoming third album, "Coffee." Miguel initially uploaded a brief preview of "Coffee" onto his miguelunlimited Instagram profile about two months ago, which featured a mysterious hashtag: #liveartdealerchic that may very well allude to the title of his upcoming album or yet another EP. It would seem that of the three self-contained tracks, "Coffee" is arguably the most similar to Miguel's former critically-acclaimed Kaleidoscope Dream material and typical R&B, Pop, Neo-Soul branded output. For whatever reasons, "Coffee" suddenly cuts off, about 2:52 into its duration, seemingly before its proper end, which again, would lead me to believe that it'll eventually be re-released as the lead-off single from Miguel's currently in-the-works RCA album (possibly featuring Jai & AK Paul).