miles cooke is an artist who is a relative newcomer to the NYC indie hip hop scene. Fortunately, he found his way to The Karma Kids, who have welcomed him into their crew and have helped him release his debut album, which is now here in the form of i used to feel things.

miles cooke is a fairly new artist, but you wouldn’t know that from listening to i used to feel things. I say that because cooke approaches everything with this low key “been there, done that” attitude. cooke is producing the whole thing himself, again working in this very understated, soul-sampling manner, creating these interesting-yet-accessible loops with a nice steady groove to them, and then just hopping on the mic to spit a slice-of-life diatribe in his gruffy voice. It’s very enjoyable and relatable, and very easy to get into. It’s interesting, because you don’t get that big energy or “hungry to make it happen” type of attitude that you might typically find a debut project like this. It’s more like you’re skipping ahead a couple of albums into his discography. cooke has much more a feel like he’s been around the block a few times, and if you fuck with his hip hop, that’s cool, he just found a few cool records he wanted to sample and he wanted to get a few things off of his chest, so he’s gonnna spit a couple of bars for you.

i used to feel things is an incredibly solid debut from miles cooke. It’s understated, as it feels like cooke isn’t trying to impress anyone, he’s just making some music for himself. If it resonates with anyone else, that’s just an added bonus.