Motown singer with supermodel looks Snoh Aalegra amazed us with her presence in our most recent issue. She’s super cool, only confirmed by the fact that she’s casually best friends with Prince, and has worked with RZA of Wu-Tang on her most recent EP There Will Be Sunshine. Not like that’s a big deal or anything, right?

Snoh is adamant that when you’re listening to her music, you’re getting to know her just a little bit better. She isn’t interested in talking about love or sex, it’s all about her and who she is. Here at Wonderland, we think that’s quite novel. She spoke to us about how when she was younger she gained a passion for music and dance the old fashioned way (by standing in front of a mirror with a hairbrush, obviously) and that it was Lauryn Hill and Michael Jackson who made her fall in love with music. Like the artists that she loves so much, Snoh uses music to tackle various personal dilemmas.

We asked Snoh to pick out her favorite tracks for Wonderland, mainly so we could listen to them in the office and be as cool as she is. She sent us this lot, simply saying “I happen to be a fan of a lot of my friends”. Nice.

Prince – “The Beautiful Ones”

This song makes me feel all emotions known to man all at the same damn time. Is any playlist complete without this genius?

(Video directed by Albert Magnoli)

Cocaine 80s – “Anywhere But Here”

So the Cocaine 80s consist of three core members; No ID, James Fauntleroy and Steve Wyreman. These three people are family to me and this is one of my favorite groups in the world! Not just because I know them, simply because they are so DOPE!

Vince Staples – “Norf Norf”

Vince is one of the most interesting new artists out now. He truly reflects the time that we are in and might be a little a head of it too.

I’m very proud to call him my friend. This video is just everything,  (Video Directed by Spike Jordan)

DJ Dahi (music producer behind Drake) – “Worst Behavior”

Dj Dahi is simply the shit and one of the nicest guys I know. This is probably his most well known work, everything by this guy is simply amazing. (Video directed by director X and Drake)

Danny Seth – “Ladies and Gentlemen the British are Coming”

He’s definitely one to watch out for! He just dropped his debut album Perception and this is the video for his single “I Arise Because”.

This song and video is sooo sick! (Video Directed by Nick Walker)

JMSN – “Bout It”

JMSN is a love at first listen. He’s definitely doing his own thing! Don’t miss him on tour.

Sam Dew – “Victor”

Sam is definitely one of my favourite new artists out, I’m so impressed by his technical skills (watch his live show) as much as I’m a fan of his music. This is my favourite song off his EP Damn Sew.

Jhene Aiko – “Wading”

This song evokes something very special in me everythime I listen to it, This beautiful lady is a member of my ARTium family (No ID’s label)

(Video Directed by Alex Nazari)

Common feat Lauryn Hill – Retrospect For Life

Oh this song, I can’t even begin to explain how I feel when I listen to this beautiful song. This song is produced by the fam No ID & James Poyser. 

(This video is actually directed by the queen herself: Ms Lauryn Hill)

Elijah Blake – “Strange Fruit”

Elijah has written songs such as ‘Climax’ for Usher and ‘No Love allowed’ for Rihanna just to mention a few. This is probably my favorite song of his performed by himself. (Video directed by Sean Alexander

WORDS: India Opie Meres

The post Best of the Next: Playlist: Snoh Aalegra appeared first on Wonderland.

We like Willie J Healey here at Wonderland. In fact, we like him so much that he appeared in our 10th Anniversary Issue: he’s a 20 year old, ginger-mopped crooner from Oxford with a wicked sense of humor and a deep, richly toned voice that is deliciously at odds with his devil-may-care youthfulness. Still raw enough to be practicing in his garage at home, he released his debut EP, HD Malibu, earlier this year and its full of the hazy, sliding-guitar riffs that mark Willie out as the next in a long line of talented acolytes of The Beach Boys – with the addition of a sonic detour through Mac De Marco’s slacker country. Though it’s neither of these artists who Willie claims as his biggest inspiration, instead citing Neil Young: “Our music is very different but I love his stuff. He’s done over 40 albums or something like that?! The way he’s constantly evolving is inspirational.”

Willie also caught attention for whipping it around in a limo (“I tried to keep it going because everyone was like ‘Ah that’s so funny Willie, you’ve got a limo, you’re such a player'”) and writing an open letter addressed to his neighbours in which he apologised for making so much noise, for feeding their fish a burger wrapper and, on behalf of his mate Eddy, for stealing women’s clothes from the washing line. His irreverant sense of humour shines through in the video for his track ‘Subterranean’, which shows him stuffing handfuls of birthday cake all over his face and generally making a surreal mess of things – check it out below. What was the significance of the cake though? Not a lot it turns out: “Ever since I saw the cake scene in Matilda, it’s been a dream of mine to stick my face in a cake. It doesn’t mean much, just a fun thing to do.” Fair enough, Cook’s ‘Sweat and Blood Cake’ always looked tempting to me as well.

We asked Willie to pick out some of his favourite tracks for Wonderland and he duly obliged, telling us, “here’s my playlist, inside includes the staples of a healthy musical diet. It consists of some classic hits mixed with a bunch of good new music. Wicked stuff. These are the songs I wish I could’ve wrote. I don’t listen to them too much because I’d probably end up ripping them off, but enjoy. Timeless hits in my eyes. I’m also really into the production side of these recordings. Some are fuzzy some are clean.” Sounds good to us.

WORDS: Benji Walters

The post BEST OF THE NEXT: PLAYLIST: WILLIE J HEALEY appeared first on Wonderland.