Blac Samurai, born and raised on the Southside Chicago, is exploring a new frontier of hip-hop that most artists never dare to dream of. Blending the influences of Three Six Mafia, Biggie, Wu Tang, Outkast, Pusha T, Jay Z, and many more, he got his moniker from the Wu Tang name generator, fitting the love of Kung Fu and Mix Martial Arts film. His latest album, “Soul Glitch” is full of futuristic atmospheres that expand within and around the grooves until they overwhelm the listener completely. The beats and the vocal flows work in tandem to create an all-embracing universe at once atmospheric and sensorial. Blac Samurai’s rhythmic fixations ensure that the drum patterns boom with astronomical force, while his dynamic deliveries are on an extraterrestrial level.
Blac Samurai has cornered the market on speculative hip-hop, developing a musical language of futurism with unparalleled mastery. Taking cues from all his influences and his own personal creativity, is the apogee of this particular design in hip-hop. Blac Samurai has managed to develop an amorphous logic in his rhyme schemes, allowing him to cut through, under, over, or straight across the beats with unwavering swagger. Opening with the thump of “97 Big”, this album is full of deep introspective musings and open-hearted street-corner philosophies.
Blac Samurai’s judicious selection of wordplay, and his ability to establish a clear sense of identity on all of these tracks, result in a cohesive collection of songs, rife with a tech-noir ambience that plays up to a cinematic sense. Rich swirling pads and selected sonic effects underscore an urgent delivery on “New Heaven (On Me)”. Blac Samurai’s vocals are pure with dramatic emcee pre-eminence. His labyrinthine rhymes radiate with forward-thinking auras, while the angular hip-hop beats pulses with the heavy buzz of synthesized basslines.
Blac Samurai’s ability to evoke an eerie, poetic air on “Bag Prt.II” through an intense and grasping delivery is an extraordinary feat, as the beams of shimmering keys and echoing percussion weave themselves around the voice. The song navigates a world of sound that favors deep resonating sonic color. Entirely sophisticated in style, Blac Samurai is also certainly practiced in musicality, tapping into a burgeoning production scene that is taking the genre by storm. His alternative beat choices are nothing short of sensational.
Burnishing his conscious and propulsive lyrical delivery, with a chill sheen on “Tap In”, Blac Samurai’s verbal onslaught is flung like shrapnel into a rhythm of slow-burning groove. The searing adrenaline rush of the track is rhythmically in tune with its theme. Blac Samurai’s grit is beyond impressive here, in a song with plenty of mass appeal. He closes the show down with “Match (All Black)’21”, which rides in on a wave of whirling synths. Throughout the album, the musical production underneath any vocals, is often just as interesting as the narratives. Such is the case here again.
What also makes a strong impression on the listener during and after listening to this album, is the dense, yet expansive lyricism. Blac Samurai digs deep and cuts to the core of his themes and topics, fearlessly. It adds up to a powerful and wonderful album that reasserts what anyone paying attention to the genre already knows. There is a whole lot more to rap and hip hop music than what the radio keeps telling us.
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