Final verdict: 8/10 ★★★★☆
Happy new year, everybody! To kick things off for this 2026, I present you with British artist Koinz’s latest single, “Masked Up.” It was released a month ago, and yet it was released last year. The Gregorian calendar is beyond peculiar.
Koinz started his music career off as a DJ in the late 2000s, before beginning to “drop bars over grime beats” (his words, not mine) in 2013 – he shortly thereafter moved from freestyle rapping to more structured verse. It’s the classic DJ-to-rapper pipeline, nothing quite as peculiar as the Gregorian calendar. This fact does, however, shape Koinz’s sound on a fundamental basis. You see, “Masked Up” is the hip-hop special; there is lots of sampling involved, complete with some huge beats over top of otherwise somber electronic instrumentation. You can trace the DJ roots if you dig deep enough, and the Koinz is good enough at his game to support this venture.
I found the intro here to be the most fun part; chopped, high-pitched vocals lay atop some sweet electric piano patches and future bass-styled synths. It’s the sound that I call “twinkly” for lack of a robust vocabulary of musical terms, and it is the sound that is my one and only true love. Then in come the thumping bass and the bigger-than-life drums, muddying that sense of laxness without compromising clarity. Koinz’s flow is smooth while retaining punch, and for that, this choon is rather pleasing to my ear. Now, ladies and gentlemen, it is a happy new year indeed. 8/10.
DISCOVER KOINZ:
https://facebook.com/koinzmusic
Silia 
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