If you ever needed tangible evidence supporting the mere notion of three minute pop songs accomplishing something more than getting a sweet groove in your head, Kayne Dynell’s “Shining” is for you. In this single and its music video, Dynell raps a hot game against the backdrop of a minimalistic – though plenty lush – instrumental melody. While on paper this might not seem like a game-changing formula for success, what makes “Shining” an incredibly motivating listen has less to do with construction and everything to do with execution. To put it quite simply, the charisma driving home the verses isn’t something you can learn in school – it’s a natural-born talent.

From the moment he starts rapping forward, there’s a certain coldness to Dynell’s verses that doesn’t fall into the same familiar category of disconnected hip-hop artists establishing mortality through tonality. On the contrary, it’s as though he’s completely removed from the narrative, as if to be recreating a dreamscape for us through poeticisms never meant to be taken literally at all. There’s no script reading or overcompensating for linguistic deficiencies here; he’s all meat and potatoes in his performance, which is a heck of a lot more than I can say for some of his American and Canadian rivals this winter.

The hook here is moderate and balanced by the manner in which Dynell broaches it, and I actually think it suggests an ability within this young man to go outside of the box and rap in more of a stripped-down setting in the future. This isn’t to say that “Shining” isn’t already excess-free (it absolutely is), but instead to simply say that he’s got the skillset to go even further with the concept he’s using for this work. There’s more ground to be covered, and with his moxie I can’t imagine it going untouched for long.

Kayne Dynell is a new face in the American rap game coming up in a northwest music scene that has never been much for fostering hip-hop culture in any capacity other than the commercial, but with the chops he’s got on display in “Shining,” I don’t see him remaining an underground fixture for long. He’s got legit ability and a striking manner of connecting his charm with the audience, even from within the constrictive walls of a recording studio, and I’m definitely anticipating a lot more magic out of his camp in the future.

John McCall