Following the successful return to releasing music in the form of “Oh My God!” and its “Nyte Time Mix”, 2U4U mark the start of the new year with single “Rare Like Dolemite”.

“Rare Like Dolemite” came to fruition during a studio session between MC My Rugema and producer ATMA, who were watching a series of Blaxploitation films and came across the legendary crime-comedy film “Dolemite” (1975) by Rudy Ray Moore. Through research, they found “Dolemite” influenced a plethora of hip-hop pioneers in lyricism and culture including The Beastie Boys and Ol’ Dirty Bastard of the Wu Tang Clan. With this newfound inspiration, ATMA created a grungy and meditative loop to which My Rugema reflectively wrote “Rare like Dolemite / This is Jazz of the modern time”, in a reference to Black music’s prevalent history in popular music, ranging from Delta Blues to Jazz to Hip-Hop and 2U4U’s continual endeavour to become trailblazers of the UK hip-hop genre.

The Rugby-based collective’s 2018 EP “BUTTER” piqued the interest of music industry tastemakers and fans alike before the collective took a step back from releasing music to get inspired and focus on their live show for 2019. In September 2019, 2U4U's song “Kings of Africa (Tell Me)” was featured in Episode 2 of Netflix series TOP BOY Season 3 as exec. produced by Drake and LeBron James. Adding to their growing list of supporters that includes Phil Taggart (BBC Radio 1), Jamz Supernova (BBC Radio 1/1xtra), gal-dem on Reprezent Radio, XL Play (from XL Recordings), Dazed, Complex, Afropunk and more.

During lockdown, 2U4U spent their time releasing freestyles and were co-signed by UK hip-hop pioneer Kojey Radical as part of his #ImSoImSoProud Challenge and Frankie Stew & Harvey Gunn for their #DreamFactoryChallenge which prompted feedback from Loyle Carner. In 2021, 2U4U aim to release a series of singles in the lead-up to a mixtape which is to come out in Autumn. Their next single will be the first official one from the tape.

“Rare Like Dolemite” has been recorded and mixed by Dave McCabe at Birmingham’s Muther’s Studios. The track was mastered by Kelly Hibbert, Grammy Award-nominated engineer credited with works for J Dilla, Madlib and Little Dragon amongst others. The artwork was produced in conjunction with up-and-coming photographer Siam Coy (Dazed, i-D, Notion, Editorial Mag) and designed by Ali Alam (abhi//dijon).

The woozy, smoky minute-long track “Rare Like Dolemite” leaves you wanting to put it on repeat to catch the vibe again.