Blake 9’s latest project after the pleasing Crawl Before You Walk from earlier on this year is a reunion of sorts with old school buddy Ionic. Years apart haven’t damaged the duo tapping into a collective sixth sense as Virginia head-to-head Yesterday’s Truth. Blake extends his production inventory positively after fortifying his funk and boom-bap digs, backing a rhymer whose energy levels and development of narratives smoothly switch up and down according to what’s travelling through his headphones.
Told You introduces the Esoteric-like Ionic as an attentive multi-tasker, detailing the prizes and pitfalls, back and forths of friendships divided by crossroads and decisions, as if his don’t-give-a-damn tone is trying to keep down and shrug off true emotions. Blake 9’s babbling keyboard and chimes loop may be a simple construction of a quiet storm, but the synths that seep gently through from the back are what bring the sentiments to the surface.
Movement or Structure , with Ionic dropping down his flow accordingly, bumps as a stooping sling of indie rap funk, revelling in the track’s shaving shadow. Ionic speaks it real, but instead of flexing a streets-raised-me validation, comments on complacency, poking holes in the American dream and maximising his wise eye to sound off that “go ‘head and enjoy your high, but know it won’t last”. Brightening up, the guitar-opening, cymbal-incessant funk on Inside the Rhyme gets Ionic to perk up, getting more on his show-n-prove high horse and while looking for the track to flourish in the face of a freshly let-off fire hydrant, proclaiming the duo as “hotter than rocking a turtleneck in summertime”.
The kooky, organ loop, surely nicked from a Sesame Street insert when teaching the kids the three Rs was done with as much funk as possible, structures the street-skipping 5 O’clock and Ionic’s weekly timetable. From running the kids here there and everywhere to nipping to Starbucks for two minutes of me-time, it’s delivered in such a way that Iconic sounds like he’s travelling through the day after barely getting 40 winks; not really taking in what’s going on, obviously hardened to such daily rigours, and knowing that deep down he really loves it.
Having said on his last release that he’s someone to dodge plugging in the synthesizer as he’s kept on getting his fingers dusty in record boxes, Born Shine may catch you on the hop. Blake sources creatively with a brisk synth-pop whirligig for Ionic to voice the courage of his convictions through science and self-discovery. Five instances of Blake9 honing duo dynamic.
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