Here in Boston, Michael Christmas had a good 2015. This time next year, we’ll be talking about the good 2016 he’s sure to have on a national level.
Today, the Roxbury-born rapper — named Hip-Hop Artist of the Year in the ’15 Boston Music Awards, where he was also nominated for Artist of the Year — announced his new EP Baggy Eyes, set for release later this month. There’s no official street date, but expect it around the time Christmas throws down at Memoriakl Day weekend’s Boston Calling Music Festival, when he sets off the Sunday slate before Disclosure, Haim, Janelle Monáe and others.
To give us a taste of what’s to come, Christmas also dropped the EP’s first single, “Paranoid”. The track was produced by Tedd Boyd and Latrell James (“Boston To London”), and premiered this morning via Hot New Hip Hop.
The track has a moody, hypnotic roll, and the laid-back vibe belies the rapper looking over his shoulder in the lyrics. It falls in line with the overall feel of the EP, which Christmas says reflects his current lifestyle.
“Baggy Eyes is about being awake at all hours of the night because you can’t sleep when all you’re thinking about is creating and having a lit ass future,” Christmas tells HNHH. “Sometimes when I try to go to sleep I imagine a huge show where people go crazy for me and just like that, I’m up for a few more hours. It also represents the time I write and think of my best shit — when I’m dead tired. As an artist my sleep schedule is fucked and as bad as it is, I like it that way. It feels good to be tired from dreaming. A lot of these songs got written the same way, when I put a cartoon on mute at five in the morning and decide it’s time to write some fire before I eventually go to sleep.”
Play it below at any volume — it’ll still get heard far beyond Boston’s borders.