Up & Away

Coming out of L.A. with a vocal style that's a mash-up of Drake, Lil B, Lil Wayne and Chris Brown, Kid Ink squared that very 2012 circle by coating his tunes with productions that were somewhere between cloud rap and Young Money's favorites. Add sing-along choruses and clever punk lines and this kid seems designed by record execs, but his road to this debut album was organic. It started off with mix tapes, partnerships with DJ Ill Will and then Sean Kingston, and a steady climb up internet music trending scoreboards as new pop-rap fans got hooked. Up & Away, his official debut, suggests the talented Kid Ink isn't such a calculated hit maker but a huge fan of what's poppin' in 2012, and that means a bit of emo, a lot of ambition and productions that hypnotize and swirl, even when they come with G-Unit styled names like "Walk in the Club."