Red Pill
Look What This World Did To Us
Who is Red Pill? A matrix enthusiast perhaps? A Detroit native for certain, and he's also a part of Mello Music Group's Ugly Heroes along with Apollo Brown and Verbal Kent.
But for me Red Pill is the continuation of the "every working class person" story that had been long carried by Slug, The Grouch, Blueprint and others.
No guys, Red Pill isn't getting lyrical spiritual miracle on you, rapping about protons and antimatter, unless you count him rapping about things that anti-matter (get it?! Eehh..?! Eehh?!!).
Red Pill knows how to tell his story with the casual, self-depreciating style we've come to love from artists like Open Mike Eagle, and comedians Mark Maron and Louis CK. On the opener "Meh", Pill is not too keen on what's going on around him and openly processes problems in relationships that I think are relatable for most of us as adults.
-"And I'm reminded of the time
You tried to let me go, Because of the way I tend to let depression show" -
What I love about hip hop is that everyone has a life view that we get to peek inside for the 43 minutes they may share. With Red Pill, I get to be reminded of what my mid-twenties were like. Drinking away the frustrations of trying to balance art, adulthood and relationships ("Rum & Coke"), while also being pissed at our societal makeup.
When songs like "Rap Game Cranky" come on with its hard-hitting horn line, and Red's hook reinventing Kendrick's "Don't Kill Me Vibe" and Drake's "Started From The Bottom", it forms into the indie rap anthem for 2015.
-"Started from the bottom and I'll stay there/Never play the game 'cuz they don't play fair/I appreciate the help, I don't need nobody else/Let me party by myself. Bitch don't kill my vibe, bitch don't kill my vibe/How am I supposed to live? I gotta work to stay alive/I'm not an open book, I'm a bottle on the shelf/To love, health and wealth/Bitch I party by myself."-
Red Pill is a talented young fuck, who managed to make me feel like the old fuck that I am when he raps about being 27 and 'old as fuck' on "Kids". Red Pill, bro... Talk to me in ten years, when your balls are graying and you owe taxes. It's total bullshit!
There's something to be said for complex MCs who like to do the multi-layered concepts, and give the metaphor inside the metaphor thing on songs. I fully appreciate the art in it, and love dissecting those kinds of records, but it's really albums like Look What This World Did To Us that end up living on repeat more often for me. I can relate to Pills stories, his frustrations, his hope, and his depression because it's life. We struggle with money, some of us with addiction, some with healthy relationships, and there's something about feeling like someone else is out there deep in the "fuck" of life with you.
There is a reason that Red Pill is on the ever impressive roster of Mello Music Group artists. The kid can truly rap, but more importantly he can write songs with heart and depth without losing the listener along the way. Listening to "That's Okay" you can see the portrait of an MC self-reflecting on figuring this endless puzzle of living out, and I'm right there with him. We all are.
With Ugly Heroes, he was apart of a great team and blending all of their styles and personalities worked out very well. But this is all Red the whole album, barring his young soul with awesome results from beginning to end. This, I think is only the very beginning of a promising career from yet another Detroit blue collar word-smith, and I'll be waiting for whatever comes next.
Favorite Songs so far: "Kids", "Rap Game Cranky", "Leonard Letdown", "Blues", "Rum & Coke", "Ten Year Party".