★★★★★
I'm simply too far removed from the hip hop scene to conclusively state that being an openly gay rapper is taboo, but to the best of my knowledge, gay rappers are still a distant minority. That was Le1f's appeal when he rose to prominence following the release of his 2012 mixtape Dark York, but another two mixtapes and two EPs later, Le1f's proven that he's more than just a passing fancy...
- www.beat.com.au
2014-04-08
★★★★★
"Ask a gay question/ Here's a black answer" is a bomb of a line hidden in the opening track of Khalif Diouf's--aka Le1f--big indie label debut, a refutation of the uninvited politics that seem to follow him wherever he goes. It's a hefty moment on an otherwise lighthearted five-tracker that serves to introduce the New York rapper to a new audience on what could be the biggest release of his career so far, his first for Terrible Records (and jointly put out by XL)...
- pitchfork.com
2014-03-17
★★★★★
Le1F doesn't have time to fuck around. His new EP clocks in at just over 17 minutes - a tightly wound five-pack of mostly new songs that works as an outstanding tease for the NYC rapper/producer's as yet unscheduled full-length. Wut, a 2012 track with a notably different sound than the others, might be here as a reminder that Le1f (and not what's-his-face from Seattle) was the first emcee on a certain staccato sax beat...
- nowtoronto.com
2014-03-06
★★★★★
The fact that there's only one unqualified banger on Le1f's new album probably says less about his ability to make instantly accessible, instantly addictive, highly energetic songs than it does his interest in making them. After all, his two prior full-lengths were packed with frenetic crowd-pleasers, and even the collaborative EP he recorded with his producer Boody, which flirted hard and heavy with ambient music, had a dance-floor-ready single in "Soda"...
- pitchfork.com
2013-10-09
★★★★★
Le1f keeps getting better and better. The New York-based musician -- real name Khalif Diouf -- first gained attention while studying at Wesleyan University by producing for rising hip-hop crew (and fellow Wesleyan students) Das Racist. By the end of his undergrad, Diouf was hard at work on his debut solo mixtape, Dark York, the first full-length articulation of his burgeoning aesthetic, an intoxicating blend of forward-thinking beats and his own chameleonic voice...
- www.tinymixtapes.com
2013-10-03
★★★★★
Perhaps forgivably for a young genre, hip hop has typically traded in shallow stereotypes as rock and pop embraced colourful flamboyance. Serious street life on one side; on the other, Freddie Mercury in a catsuit. The elephant in the rap room was homosexuality - hip hop never had an openly gay, commercially successful artist. But that changed in 2012, 's coming out spawning several articles on American urban music's new attitude towards gay performers...
- www.bbc.co.uk
2013-05-31
★★★★★
Le1f's 2012 mixtape Dark York established him as one of the more idiosyncratic rappers in a year defined in large part by a vast number of debuts by folks who don't fit the popular conception of what people expect from an MC. Most of the record is given over to edgy dance-rap hybrids and edgier electronic psychedelia, but in the moments that his vision snaps into focus-- including but not limited to the addictively skronky, twerk-worthy single "Wut"-- he turns into a pop star waiting to happen...
- pitchfork.com
2013-05-31
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