BangBizzy: “Grim Reaper” – evoking atmosphere and communicating content

One of BangBizzy’s greatest characteristics is his ability to turn complex rhymes into dot-to-dot simple phrases that appear to come on slow but, listening back, strike with polysyllabic smoothness. It’s his diction, maybe – he spills dizzying imagery like a man possessed on his latest single, “Grim Reaper” but every word is clear and correct, his accent pointing every plosive.

John (Bang Bizzy) Bone has moved on to more intimate but direct subject matter, on the track produced by deemaxproductionz, often switching between a confrontational and a confessional tone in the process. Make no mistake, he’s got bars and it appears that his intent is clear with this track. He is having fun, but he is still trying to go deep lyrically.

Running through his catalog of tracks, I can hear that BangBizzy is always playing the same game in his rapping, offering believable narratives (or, sometimes, narratives so unbelievably real they scan as supposedly “gritty” realism) that could easily be mere riffs on listener expectations.

No matter how verbose he gets he constantly offers to let us in and then plays us the fools for thinking we could ever get to the “real” BangBizzy. “Grim Reaper” feels more than any of his earlier work like wandering through a fun-house full of mirrors while BangBizzy’s voice echoes on the sound system. The production suits his game perfectly.

Just like BangBizzy’s vocals, it’s recognizably luscious, but tightened to a bare minimum: with squeaky synths and a bass heavy vacuum that discloses what’s necessary for the track to function perfectly, evoking atmosphere and communicating content, and always keeping the spotlight firmly on the mark where BangBizzy is standing in the mix – and that’s right in the forefront. It’s an off-kilter aesthetic that works to a tee.

The beat clatters and clangs intelligibly but never settles on the groove, sounding like it’s either about to become a typical rap song or like it used to be one that has since exploded into a million pieces, as Bangbizzy delivers his wit that hits like a whip, and rhymes spit like a shuriken.

“Grim Reaper” is a work that positions BangBizzy as a hyper-current presence in the hip hop landscape, acutely aware of how to manipulate fresh sounds and traditional expectations for his own inscrutable ends. It’s a breath of fresh air for anyone who is flat out sick of where mainstream Hip-Hop is going, and more importantly, a sign what I hope are things to come.

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