Second Hand King
Before the Bomb Drops
Second Hand King came to us the old-fashioned way. He reached out and asked nicely. His album, Before the Bomb Drops hit the spot like I would have never thought Kansas could do. His piano-driven raps are a glorious tornado of I hate myself.
The record:
It's funny. "Hold on Taylor Swift, I'm a let you finish…" - from "Before the Bomb Drops"
It's poignant. "Why do I feel like I fucked up?" - from "About a Family Member Almost Dying"
It's original. Second Hand King has his own thing going on. It's like some genetically-modified husk-free corn where the kernels alternate in the shape of the faces of Spoken Nerd, Billy Joel, Mayer Hawthorne, and Mike D. Cover that shit in butter and invite me to the fucking barbecue, ssssssSON!
A lot of listeners like a polished product. I've always been more attracted to heathen frontmen helplessly-possessed by the spirit of Alice Cooper. Second Hand King isn't ANYTHING like that. He's trying to be as polished as Eminem and Elton John adopting and fat, Appalachain orphan in the afterglow of Supreme Court Rulings. This baby might be destined to rule us all from the heights of Mountain Dew. But he isn't there yet. He's still shoving random objects up in his nose and falling down for no reason and leaking out of his musical diaper. He's still a li'l rough around the edges. And I LOVE it! It's little things that make him seem like someone I could run into at a show and smoke a cigarette with and laugh and be myself around. I like flaws.
Second Hand King's song raps are brimming with a combination of yearning and ennui. Utter dissatisfaction but somehow channeling that listlessness into effected songs about that sense of mislaid identity like, "The Ground and the Middle". "I've been asleep all my life. All I need is one more night. One more chance again. One more dance, my friend. 'Cause I don't know where I'm goin', I don't know where I'm goin'. School didn't teach me. Class didn't reach me. I'm stuck between the ground and the middle."
That shit made me put my fist up high in the morning sky like right fucking now while I'm sitting here in my boxer briefs at my laptop like a sexier Sully from Monster's Inc. I almost spilled my lukewarm coffee. Thanks for that, SHK.