Despite coming up through one of the most competitive ages in the history of popular music, the New England-based Ilyah has a lot to be proud of at this stage of his career. He’s dropped marvelous singles in “Come Get It,” awesome videos in “The Only One,” “Miscommunication” and “Girls Like You,” all in addition to putting forth one of the more remarkable debut LPs of the late 2010s in All These Thoughts (2019). In his new single and music video, “Habibi,” Ilyah gets back to his Moroccan roots and sheds some of the R&B components from his sound in favor of embracing a more eclectic, post-ambient tonality, but I wouldn’t call this his sellout moment at all.
There’s nothing commercialized about the material he’s stepping up to bat with in “Habibi;” on the contrary, the exotic mixture of American pop melodies and Moroccan beats is as one of a kind as it gets. Pop music has always been one of my favorite passions in life, and through the studious efforts of this new generation of players, it’s getting the futuristic adaptation most of us have been waiting an entire lifetime to experience.
The bass textures are wholly muted in the chorus of “Habibi,” but this was likely necessary to enhance the hollow tonality of the percussion (one of my favorite elements in the master mix). There are a few raw, jagged edges to the transition from the second stanza into the chorus, but I like how this additional grit accentuates the natural emotionality already present in Ilyah’s performance here. He could have made everything as swanky as the synths in this track, but he instead goes for the contrast and leaves the synthesized melodies as the lone component of the main harmony that sounds covered in pop varnish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88RJ2K1CUwE
I wouldn’t say that “Habibi” is the most involved lyrical selection of this artist’s career so far, but at the same time, it would be foolish not to acknowledge it’s being on par with anything in pop’s contemporary elite class. Ilyah isn’t looking to change the world with his rhythm in this single and its music video so much as he’s trying to affirm his position in an underground hierarchy in need of some new leadership this year.
You’d be hard-pressed to hear anything like “Habibi” when browsing the FM dial this spring, and not because of its Moroccan-style grooves exclusively. In his delivery and the dashing swagger he affords the lyrics here, Ilyah becomes a pop star before our very ears in this song. The music video feels like a celebratory festival of light, color and crooning that doesn’t require a prerequisite lesson in the history of pop to appreciate.
For all of the talk surrounding the west coast sound this May, I must admit that some of my favorite beats of the month have been sourced from none other than Ilyah’s “Habibi,” which reps both its creator’s new home in Boston and his familial roots better than any of us could have expected it to.
Jodi Marxbury