ED5 is the CEO of ED5 productions, as well as being a song writer, engineer and producer. His single “Zombie” taken from the 7 track mixtape “Only The 5” has the main focus being ED5’s mesmerizing vocals and producer’s uncanny ability to wrap a track around them (or perhaps it’s the other way around, ED5’s knack for enveloping his vocals around the trap-dripping production?). The lyrics are sharp and raw with ED5 crooning, “Walking like a Zombie cause I’m fucked up. I’m so fucked up.” It’s another incessantly catchy hook from EDM, and the hollowing jingling production from is the icing on the cake.
Listening through the entire mixtape, you realize that ED5 has created a formula to keep heads bopping, and part of that formula appears to be: creating a melodic hook and providing quotable, short phrases to repeat. The general sound of the project is familiar to his previous releases, showing continuity, but at the same time, has an affluence of new inspiration. Being intoxicated plays an important role in his narratives on “Only The 5”, but it serves as the crux paving the way for some of his most affecting and introspective writing.
ED5 re-imagines trap through grizzly beats with melody driven cadences that articulate emotions through his intonations. He also showcases his developing pen game, trying out trickier technical schemes and verbally navigating his unrestrained ideas with a silver tongue.
This is evident on tracks like “Pharoa”, “Upset”, and “Drunk”. “Zombie” has a more methodical cadence that slips carefully into the pockets. You can listen to it at maximum possible volume in your car or at a club and it’s lit, but at the right moment you can also hear ED5’s otherworldly delivery.
“Only The 5” is a uniformly awesome mixtape, remarkable for the singularity of its vision. The tracks draw upon you slowly: slithering synths, lowering beds of bass, and ED5’s scene-setting flows. The production throughout is the perfect vessel for ED5’s flow. The music stays in the same affective lane, maintaining a disquieting sense of being, or as ED5 say in “Zombie” – fucked up!
It’s amazing to me how ED5’s melodic genius and effects-filled voice can be re-purposed as monstrously catchy as this. But it’s maybe not surprising, given how he convincingly, animates his flows and rhymes schemes to serve a deepening emotional solution. ED5 finds a hellish, motivating power by articulating how it’s possible to have the best time of your life, ‘drinking, smoking and flexing…and doing all the shit that your momma told you not to!’ And it all sounds so good.
OFFICIAL LINKS: DATPIFF – SOUNDCLOUD
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