Sunday Music: These "Suede" Stories From Anderson .Paak Are So Cool
August 31, 2025·0 comments·zg
Anderson .Paak, before you knew who he was, before you knew how to pronounce “.Paak” (which was on purpose?! what a genius marketing move I never even questioned), was making songs with his friends and floating them around on SoundCloud and at shows.
One of those songs caught the attention of Knxwledge (yes, pronounced “knowledge” but - marketing), who was signed to legendary indie hip hop label, Stones Throw Records.
Being early in the “I can stream all this new music from my phone?!” era (2015ish), I was excitedly checking out new Stones Throw artists because I didn’t have to pay $10 a pop in the iTunes store anymore (sorry artists) and I came across this group, NxWorries, and immediately fell in love with “Suede.”
It was Dilla and Madlib energy rolled up. It had a sing-songy vocal that - Speech? But cooler than Speech (Arrested Development) in more of a pimped-out yes lawd style (press play, you’ll get it)? It was modern Stones Throw in the coolest ways.
And, THE DRUMS.
I start googling and find out there’s this guy, Anderson .Paak, who I have no idea how to pronounce his name, but he’s got an album coming out, and he just did a bunch of drum and other work on the mid-2015 Dr. Dre album, Compton, which I checked out but had some mixed feelings on.
All I knew was, this NxWorries thing was cool, .Paak had gospel drumming roots (always respect that), and once Malibu and the rest of the records started coming out, I was on board with clocking his career.
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