Oddisee‘s music is tough to categorize. For his trio Diamond District, he takes a traditional boom-bap route, sprinkling obscure soul loops over grainy bass drums. His solo work feels like something else; it’s rooted in hip-hop, but its use of live instruments and sonic adventurousness means it’s unusually genre-stretching and textural.
On June 5, the DMV/Brooklyn hybrid will drop his proper solo debut, People Hear What They See. But he’ll whet appetites next Tuesday with a free EP, Odd Renditions, which remixes songs from Bon Iver, Metronomy, and k-os. Released today, “Ain’t That Peculiar” is the EP’s first single, on which Oddisee repurposes Marvin Gaye‘s song with light piano keys and lively synthesizers. Odd throws in a rhyme for good measure: “I know love is peculiar, but you are even more so/How you wear your heart on your wardrobe, Lord knows.” Watch the video here.