D.C./New York hip-hop trio Diamond District is less than three weeks away from releasing March On Washington, its anticipated followup to 2009’s In the Ruff—but the group is doing a fine job of making those remaining days feel awfully long. Tuesday the Village Voice premiered “Lost Cause,” another superlative single from the album due out Oct. 14.
Like “First Step,” the first March on Washington single Diamond District dropped on us several weeks back, “Lost Cause” sets the mood with a soul sample or two—but producer and MC Oddisee tells the Village Voice it’s actually a subtle change of pace for him and his collaborators, yU and Uptown X.O.
“Traditionally, Diamond District has been deep-rooted in boom-bap early ’90s hip-hop, with the tempo ranging between 86 and 96 [bpm], and this one is a half-tempo beat,” Oddisee tells the paper. “Even though it’s familiar with our sounds, it’s a little bit outside the range of what people would usually expect from us. We chose this track because of content matter and to display some diversity from us.”