Cut 4 Me

Cut 4 Me is the debut mixtape by American singer and songwriter Kelela. It was released on October 1, 2013, by Fade to Mind for free download on SoundCloud.[2] Seeking to make the mixtape sound like a remix album, Kelela sung over instrumental tracks by producers from the Fade to Mind and Night Slugs record labels,[3] whose sound has been described as "one of the most distinctive sounds in UK dance music, a mutable hybrid of grime, house, electro, R&B, techno, hip hop, and dubstep."[4]

Cut 4 Me
Mixtape by Kelela
Released	October 1, 2013
Recorded	2012–2013[1]
Genre	Alternative R&B electronic UK bass R&G techno
Length	49:22
Label	Fade to Mind
Producer	Bok Bok Jam City Kingdom Morri$ Nguzunguzu Girl Unit NA Napolian Tariq & Garfield MikeQ Massacooramaan Rizzla Neana
Kelela chronology
Cut 4 Me (2013) Hallucinogen (2015)
Alternative cover
Deluxe edition cover

A deluxe edition featuring a new interlude and eight new remixes by the Fade to Mind and Night Slugs producers was released on April 6, 2015 on CD, vinyl and digital download.[5]

Composition

Time Out London characterized the mixtape as "future R&B."[6] Similarly, The Guardian described it as "twisted R&B," adding that "the songs are twisted both sonically – warping 90s R&B melodies with club beats – and emotionally, thanks to her ability to undercut mainstream pop tropes like love and seduction with such dark devotion you get the sense she's singing from a bush outside her ex-boyfriend's house."[7] The New York Times compared Kelela to Aaliyah, while calling the mixtape "bubbly club music of the early 1990s."[8] Exclaim! called the mixtape is "a credible cohesion of '90s house-ish sounds and soul."[9] Time's Douglas Wolk noted that the mixtape "is built on the half-time beats and unsettling negative-space arrangements of the "bass music" collectives Night Slugs and Fade to Mind. It's forbidding stuff, but it meshes with the sweet '90s R&B inflections of Kelela's singing."[10] The Line of Best Fit stated that the mixtape "pushed R&B to its limits by injecting it with UK bass, grime and techno."[11] AllMusic said the mixtape is "predominantly electronic and progressive R&B."[12]

Critical reception

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	81/100[13]
Review scores
Source	Rating
The 405	8/10[14]
AllMusic	[15]
Exclaim!	8/10[9]
Fact	4.5/5[16]
Pitchfork	8.3/10[17]
Resident Advisor	3.5/5[18]
Tiny Mix Tapes	3.5/5[19]

At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the mixtape received an average score of 81, based on 6 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[13] Fact stated that "there is nothing about Cut 4 Me that doesn't challenge the listener's expectations of what R&B can be in 2013 and beyond."[16] Given their "Best New Music" label, Pitchfork said the mixtape "is an ambitiously catchy record as well as being an aesthetically ambitious one."[17] CMJ said the mixtape is a collection "of flawlessly crafted R&B pop gems, squeezed dry of any sonic excess that tends to signal uncertainty."[20] Calling the mixtape "excellent", The Guardian said, "across 13 tracks Kelela travels from angered to paranoid, horny to high. She will sound fine, then terrible, then merely quite unhappy until finally, for a while at least, she sounds at peace," adding that "the next 12 months are undoubtably going to be awash with a similar structure of falsettos, surreal beats and eerie minimalism. But let's not forget: Kelela's Cut 4 Me did it first, and almost certainly did it best."[7] Spin said "there's been no shortage of hazily hi-tech R&B over the past couple of years, but none of it sounds as eerie or as ominous as Kelela's does. The music is full of hulking, square-wave bass lines, digital chimes, desiccated claps, and jagged rhythms; synth leads waver queasily around their target pitch, and open-fifth harmonies suggest a faintly Asian air."[21] AllMusic said "Kelela fulfills her desire to make what resembles a remix album," but added that unlike most remix albums, "there's never any sense of a disconnect between the music and the vocals. Kelela's expressive and athletic voice easily slithers between and coasts over the beats."[15]

Accolades

Publication	Accolade	Rank	Ref.
Complex	The 50 Best Albums of 2013	28	[22]
eMusic	100 Best Albums of 2013	33	[23]
Fact	The 50 Best Albums of 2013	5	[24]
Gigwise	The 50 Best Albums of 2013	20	[25]
The Guardian	Best albums of 2013	7	[7]
The Quietus	Quietus Albums of the Year 2013	23	[26]
Spin	SPIN's 50 Best Albums of 2013	36	[27]
Time	Top 10 Albums of 2013	7	[10]
Time Out London	The 40 best albums of 2013	5	[6]
Urban Outfitters	Top 50 Albums of 2013	22	[28]

Track listing

No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
1.	"Guns & Synths"	Bok Bok Napolian Tariq & Garfield	2:56
2.	"Enemy"	Nguzunguzu	4:17
3.	"Floor Show"	Girl Unit	4:38
4.	"Do It Again"	NA	3:00
5.	"Go All Night (Let Me Roll)"	Morri$	1:43
6.	"Bank Head" (Extended)	Kingdom	5:02
7.	"Cut 4 Me"	Kingdom	3:53
8.	"Keep It Cool"	Jam City	4:10
9.	"Send Me Out"	Kingdom	4:12
10.	"Go All Night (Let it Burn)"	Morri$	1:46
11.	"Something Else"	Nguzunguzu	4:07
12.	"A Lie"	Bok Bok	3:39
13.	"Cherry Coffee"	Jam City	5:59
Total length:			49:22

Cut 4 Me – Deluxe edition (bonus tracks)[29]

No.	Title	Producer(s)	Length
14.	"Fade to Mind (Interlude)"		1:00
15.	"Keep It Cool" (Jam City Remix)	Jam City	4:07
16.	"Enemy" (Kingdom's Destruction Before Paradise Mix)	Kingdom	4:17
17.	"Send Me Out" (Girl Unit Remix)	Girl Unit	5:04
18.	"Send Me Out" (Nguzunguzu Remix)	Nguzunguzu	2:58
19.	"Keep It Cool" (Rizzla Remix)	Rizzla	4:24
20.	"Cherry Coffee" (MikeQ's Almighty Mix)	MikeQ	4:34
21.	"Go All Night" (Neana Remix)	Neana	4:23
22.	"Go All Night" (Massacooramaan Remix)	Massacooramaan	4:06
Total length:			84:15

Release history

List of release dates, showing region, formats, label, editions and reference

Region	Date	Format(s)	Label	Edition(s)	Ref.
Worldwide	October 1, 2013	Digital download	Fade to Mind	Standard	[30]
	April 6, 2015	LP CD digital download		Deluxe	[31]

References

1. Greeley, Shakeil (March 29, 2018). "Kelela Is Thriving in an Unkind World". GQ Magazine. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
2. "Kelela - Cut 4 Me [FADELP001] by FadetoMind". SoundCloud.
3. Kellman, Andy. "Kelela: Biography". AllMusic.
4. Sherburne, Philip. "Night Slugs' Bok Bok on Grime, Texture, and Moving Beyond 'Bass Music'". Spin.
5. "Kelela - Cut 4 Me (Deluxe)". Bleep.com.
6. "The 40 best albums of 2013". Time Out London. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
7. "The best albums of 2013: No 7 – Cut 4 Me by Kelela". The Guardian. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
8. "New Albums by Oozing Wound, Danny Brown and More". The New York Times.
9. Weekes, Jabbari (October 1, 2013). "Kelela: Cut 4 Me". Exclaim!. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
10. "Top 10 Albums of 2013". Time. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
11. Matsuda, Tom (October 14, 2017). "Take Me Apart by Kelela". The Line of Best Fit. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
12. Kellman, Andy (October 6, 2017). "Take Me Apart - Kelela | Songs, Reviews, Credits". AllMusic. Retrieved October 25, 2017.
13. "Reviews for Cut 4 Me [Mixtape] by Kelela". Metacritic. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
14. Walmsley, Mike. "Kelela – Cut 4 Me". The 405. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
15. Kellman, Andy. "Cut 4 Me – Kelela". AllMusic. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
16. Kelly, Chris (October 2, 2013). "Cut 4 Me". Fact. Archived from the original on June 20, 2018. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
17. Raymer, Miles (October 18, 2013). "Kelela: Cut 4 Me". Pitchfork. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
18. Ryce, Andrew (October 15, 2013). "Kelela – CUT 4 ME". Resident Advisor. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
19. Henderson, Nick. "Kelela – CUT 4 ME". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
20. "Kelela - Cut 4 Me". CMJ.
21. Sherburne, Philip. "Kelela's Stunning 'Cut 4 Me' Mixtape Will Suck You Into Futuristic R&B Vortex". Spin. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
22. "The 50 Best Albums of 2013". Complex. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
23. "eMusic's 100 Best Albums of 2013". eMusic. AOTY. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
24. "The 50 Best Albums of 2013". Fact. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
25. "The 50 Best Albums of 2013: Our Highlights of the Year". Gigwise. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
26. "Quietus Albums of the Year 2013". The Quietus. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
27. "SPIN's 50 Best Albums of 2013". Spin. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
28. "Urban Outfitters' Top 50 Albums of 2013". Urban Outfitters. AOTY. Retrieved July 31, 2018.
29. "Cut 4 Me (Deluxe) by Kelela on Apple Music". iTunes. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
30. "Download Kelela's Debut Mixtape, Cut 4 Me". The Fader. October 1, 2013. Retrieved August 5, 2018.
31. "Kelela Announces Cut 4 Me Deluxe Edition". Pitchfork. February 17, 2015. Retrieved August 5, 2018.

External links

• Cut 4 Me at Discogs (list of releases)