It’s hard to think of a better example of this than “5 Geez,” a piece of day-in-the-life hedonism condensed into bars that careen past like monster trucks. Everything and everyone SINN6R describes feels within reach: the African girls he shares drugs with, the Jean-Paul Gaultier shirt with the stripes, the whip that’s “blacked out ’cause [he’s] so in-form.” A while back, I watched an interview with MIKE that likened him to DOOM for being able to tell entire stories in single lines. SINN6R accomplishes that same feat while maintaining the vulgar, teeth-gritting hubris that makes him feel larger than life. “Elizabeth died, but the money’s still here, so it feels like the ghosts won’t leave me alone,” he spits on “K on a Box.” The punchlines are so lucid, it makes his staunch delivery even heavier; later on, when he deadpans, “Put the dolls on the floor, I ain’t playin’ no more,” it feels like an affirmation of adulthood and a lust-driven command all in one.
SINN6R’s ability to strike a balance between vanity and sobersided candor makes #FEDERAL feel painfully urgent. It’s reflected equally in Zoja and Cppo’s production as in the lyrics: The somber, VST string-laden undercurrent of “Label Dinner” and the melancholic blips skittering across “Shoebox” beautifully backdrop scenes of codeine withdrawal and familial unrest. “Label dinner, I’m high as fuck/I’m tellin’ them, ‘Need that cash in account’/My mumzy ill/I need that mil to feed my sisters/Never in doubt,” SINN6R raps. There’s a pervasive push-and-pull between him reaping the new fruits of celebrity and reveling in the street shit he should leave behind. When SINN6R gets his cake and eats it too, the beats reflect that indulgence tenfold. 808s are head-busting (“5 Geez”), melodies are scintillating (“K on a Box”), and hi-hats sound like bullets spraying from an uzi (“Chilli”). As “Fuk the City”’s coda explodes with shattering glass, yelps in Jamaican patois, and a pensive piano roll from the next track, it genuinely gives me chills.
As concise as it is (just 10 tracks, 19 minutes), #FEDERAL saves some shine for other upstarts in the scene: TeeboFG on “Me & You” is brash and exciting (“Are you mad just ’cause I rock OSBATT?/Don’t mean I won’t bat man with a wrench” is funny as hell); Rico Ace on “Chilli” falls kinda flat (“You take X?/I take worse” feels juvenile). Ledbyher’s posh, numbed-out lyrical approach to “Label Dinner” feels incongruous with SINN6R’s vulnerability, but her delivery is cold and affecting; those stretches of wordless melody are angelic. It’s been a banner year for underground UK rap, and even so, #FEDERAL stands out a whole lot. If you ask me, it’s XV Records’ best work to date, full of deathly effusive earworms I can’t go long without running back.
