Fans of Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu listen up because your favourite new psychedelic R&B track is here. Greentea Peng, the enigmatic neo-soul artist from Southeast London, creates healing melodies that have drawn positive attention from the likes of British Vogue, NME, Mojo, and The Independent and led her to perform on Later… With Jools Holland.
Now she has teamed up with the trip-hop inspired music producer from Leeds, Nightmares on Wax, to create a totally fresh track: ‘Top Steppa V2’. The song, originally released on Greentea Peng’s mixtape GREENZONE 108 back in September last year, has been given a new reggae groove with dubbed-out synths and a heavy entrancing bassline that will rock you to your core below Greentea Peng’s lush spaced-out vocals.
George Evelyn started Nightmares on Wax in the late 80s crafting a unique sound of jazz, reggae, and trip-hop. Since then, he has released an impressive eight studio albums under the name. His love of music began at a young age when his father and sister introduced him to the likes of Quincy Jones and Curtis Mayfield.
This is not the first time the pair have worked together with Greentea featuring on Nightmares On Wax’s 2021 album Shout Out! To Freedom. Greentea Peng, born Aria Wells, said, “It was really nice working with Nightmares on Wax, a dear friend of mine and incredible musician to retwist Top Steppa and turn it into a completely new track. Big Love!”. Nightmares On Wax also said he totally connects with the energy Greentea Peng shares and through vibing he was able to tap into the iconic British expression of 90’s hip hop & 70’s roots reggae with a futuristic electronic twist that the song contains.
The mixtape GREENZONE 108 is not one to miss out on either. The 10 tracks are a fresh take on the dub genre mixing trip-hop sounds, with hip-hop beats and soulful vocals. Greentea Peng collaborated with several heavyweights in the music world including hip-hop producer Nat Powers, MJ Cole producer of ‘Bassline Junkie’, and St Francis Hotel who are frequent collaborators of Danger Mouse and Inflo.
GREENZONE 108 follows Greentea Peng’s debut album Man Made released in 2021 which is the ultimate vibe album. At 18 tracks long it’s the perfect length to chill to whilst you let the warm beats heal your soul – the album was even recorded at 432 Hz frequency to vibrate healing energy!
Last year Greentea Peng made her Glastonbury debut with her beloved band The Seng Seng Family giving a joyous performance. As her music is the perfect summer festival tunes we hope to catch her on the festival circuit at some point this year. Until then we’ll have ‘Top Steppa V2’ on repeat.
Words By Molly Sutherland
Header Image Graphics By Mia Washbrook
