West London’s Kid Tana drops smooth street raps on new track ‘Paranoid’.

‘Paranoid’ should hopefully be the start of some consistency from Kid Tana. He isn’t a new artist by any means, he’s been dropping music since 2018 – just extremely sporadically. On this latest drop he shows why that needs to change, no one likes to see a person’s talent wasted.

Before we really get into Kid Tana‘s performance, let’s talk production. ‘Paranoid’ samples Bobby Valentino‘s huge 2005 track ‘Tell Me’ – which also had a verse on the remix from an on the top of his game Lil Wayne. So the beat is no stranger to having a rapper over it, where the original is much softer and tailored to the R&B context the updated version on ‘Paranoid’ makes it a rappers paradise. Whilst still maintaining the R&B smoothness with the extra percussion and rap context the beat is the perfect canvas for street tales and pain.

On the track Kid Tana does an incredible job. His unique voice, slightly higher pitched and nasally, automatically catches your attention because it sounds so different to everyone else. What makes you stay is his ability to flow and tell a story. On ‘Paranoid’ we get the street stuff but there’s also glimpses of insight into his psyche and lack of satisfaction with that life. Kid Tana reminds me of Meek Mill, from the delivery and cadence to the subject matter. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was one of the people he took inspiration from, and hopefully like with Meek we see the progression over time.

Visuals are pretty clean, and despite not making it a huge cinematic affair there’s a narrative running through it. Besides the narrative style with shots mainly focusing on Kid Tana on a journey, there’s also some nice B-roll, especially the aerial shots. The video culminates with a “to be continued” message so it will be interesting to see the direction this goes in.

As somebody who has plenty of room to work with, the trajectory of Kid Tana‘s career could be very exciting if he gets some consistency going. You can stream ‘Paranoid’ and his other releases here.