xoDEADHOMIE - Rot In Pieces (Album)
This man is well on his way to have as many monikers as a Kool Keith or Riff Raff & that is not to compare him to either cause he’s in a lane all his own. To me though, xoDEADHOMIE is an amalgamation of $inik & AwkwardLowlife, being that his 1st project underneath this new moniker of his has elements of each persona though it’s his most brash body of work to date, capping off a massive year for the ever evolving talent. Opening up with the suicide prevention hotline, our dead homie takes this time to express his wanting of it, though he knows he wouldn’t, I’m sure he has a lot of pain in him that he simply wishes would end so not as much killing himself as it is killing a part of himself that’s preventing him from living life to the fullest & the repeated chanting of those lines proves how much he dangles that idea of suicide off the edge, it’s a very abrupt start to this project & really sets the tone for what’s to follow.
On “Progress”, that mixture of Alternative & Hip Hop shines beautifully as he details his reluctance in letting certain people in his circle, let alone people who used to be in it, back in it due to them stymieing the progress he’s made so far. That’s the main thing I appreciate about him, that introspection of his is just so raw & relatable, especially if you come from that world he’s from cause it’s a unique experience & anybody on the outside looking in might not understand that struggle & can be quick to judge but he ain’t got any time for that. The duality of it though is beautifully exemplified on “Krown” where he taps back into that wild boy he still is somewhere at heart, though it’s not a side of him he wishes to show but life, as well as fuck ass people tend to bring it right back out of him.
The 1st single to drop from this project, “Lights Out Lets Go!” is a frenetically melancholic alternative bop where we find our dead homie getting lost in the elation of his drug of choice. It was the perfect number to tease this new record with cause it’s so different from everything he’s done thus far, well, not entirely, it’s definitely an enhancement of sorts, an expansion on the sound of records like “Hot Box” & I can only assume he’s to continue expanding on that sound, further pushing the parameters of what he’s capable of musically. Speaking of musicality, he continues to dilly dally between these fluctuating sounds he dominates so effortlessly on “Run It Up” where he once again reminds anybody who may have forgot just what he’s capable of lyrically. I personally love when he brings out that $inik in him cause we get performances like this where he just keeps going with no end in sight.
We even get societal statements from him on the frantic electronica induced “Lost Cause” where he really channels that rebel within him. The whole world might turn into a rave whenever you throw this number on, probably my favorite off this project cause it’s literally extremely different from anything he’s ever done, it’s an entirely different genre that he’s teased here & who knows how much more he’ll expand on this sound or what other sounds he’ll try his hand at. The experimentation only continues on the last 3 tracks, be it the acoustic R&B trap of “Used To This”, another one of those beautiful introspective numbers or the ear bleeding earnestness of “A Heartfelt Homicide.”, to which the production lowkey reminds me of the distortion of one of my favorite genres of music, Shoegazing. To me, this “Underground King” will only continue to dominate as we maneuver through the new year & who knows, he might even take on a new moniker but one thing we can be sure of, is that musically, he’s forever on the incline.
