Gibbee the Visionary: “Exit 420” – a guaranteed mood igniter!

Gibbee the Visionary is 24 year old, hip hop inspired artist. Born and Raised in North Shore, Auckland, New Zealand, Gibbee started writing hs own rhymes at 16, completing his first track and video at 18, while he began producing his own beats at 21. A few months back Gibbee the Visionary dropped his five-track EP, entitled “Exit 420”,  and now that it’s hit the collective ear drums of the world, I’m sure there will be no shortage of words spilled about it: album reviews, think pieces about the state of white rappers, galleries placing Gibbee the Visionary on the “overlooked/under-rated” list.

And I could have written all those too, but I’ve been listening to “Exit 420” enough to know that there really is one area in which he will be consistently overlooked…his lyricism. Call it the curse of the fast rapper. When you’re spitting out double time flow after double time flow, listeners can assume you’re not actually saying anything, but Gibbee the Visionary’s rhyme book isn’t just filled with gibberish, he’s committed to making all those words pouring out of his mouth matter.

There may one-hundred reasons why Gibbee the Visionary won’t become a successful rapper in the USA – let’s go ahead and name a few. For starters, he’s white, which always invites suspicion. And to make matters worse, he’s from New Zealand – a foreign country? Ooh, tough combo.

However there is one reason to believe the man has a real chance though, and thankfully it’s the most important reason: he makes f**king good music. In fact, the more that I think about it, Gibbee the Visionary’s new EP is essentially one giant mother-f**king reason why the man should become a successful rapper.

There’s no denying his flow which is a defining characteristic as is his precision tongue. “Northern Shore” is an exercise in a microphone menacing buzz which slowly but surely ratchets up the throttle until no one in ear shot is left alive. In some ways the burning title track “Exit 420” is an even more impressive display of his voice control as he switches his flow up and then right down, as often as the layered beat requires.

For a guaranteed mood igniter though, you need to switch into “Pou’ Up! (Feat. Dirty E)”, which has plenty to offer the hip-hop head looking to crank the volume up and their brain waves down, while lighting one up and chilling.

But where Gibbee the Visionary confounds the stereotype of the street-smart rapper – all speed, no substance – is tracks like “Traffic Jam”. While most rappers are too busy rhyming about their dicks to even mention anything else in their lives, Gibbee the Visionary dives head first into an everyday life experience that happens to all of us, and turns it into a f**cking song!

But his not just about rhymes and flow, as Gibbee the Visionary makes some seriously haunting futuristic beats. You’ll actually wonder how he manages to rhyme on top some of these, but he does, and impressively so. I challenge you to throw down a couple of decent lines to the synth driven beat of “Traffic Jam”!

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