“iYo the Philosopher featuring Sikey Much” brings a little bit of classic hip-hop and drives it high and bright with his own unique vocal rhythm and style by releasing “Best Regards.” His musical backdrop provides listeners with the hypnotic good vibes that strong and creative production offers, yet his vocal performance and lyricism on top of this add something that puts his personal stamp on all that he writes and releases.
“Best Regards” is a track that feels like a fresh summer breeze, one that ever so swiftly picks up and utilizes every snippet of soul and passion that passes by. The hip-hop structure of the track leaves it glowing not unlike that of a hip-hop side project – a brief glimpse at something chaotic and beautiful, though in this case, the warmth of the music has a fairly solid and loyal presentation. There is poetry and soul here, oceans of each, and the genre of the music could be just about anything behind a force that fuses those two elements so intensely. A force that will, hopefully, lead to an unstoppable plethora of similar-minded music.
The hip-hop effect is re-emphasized by the stop-and-start nature of the instrumentation, particularly throughout the latter half of the track. This effect allows the artist to perform in an almost freestyle-like manner; there’s soulful creativity here, which knows no boundaries. There’s also, quite literally, a soft sound mixed in among the trip-hop-inspired beat, and with the artist’s leading vocal as the driving force through all of this; there’s plenty of movement, and plenty of influence – although, perhaps influence is something of an over-run or irrelevant concept these days.
The vocal effect used on the track and the way that it’s been mixed in has a fairly unusual sound to it. The presentation is, as mentioned, generally quite classic, but there’s also a lot about it that is different, and this makes it even easier to pinpoint the artist’s sound. The artist’s voice has a mellow and smooth sort of tone, and the rhythm of his performance means that each line and each lyric really strikes with a good amount of power. You notice the lines, you notice the words, and you pick up on the vibe and the feeling behind the performance.
The unusual vocal effect means that the sound is not massively focused on the lyrics, the whole soundscape of the track plays as a complete unit, and this actually works well for such an upbeat yet simultaneously easy-going bit of hip-hop and r&b. There’s particular energy about the track that fans will come to recognize as true to iYo the Philosopher’s style. Hopefully, there’s more to come.
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