Sick Boi

Many were first introduced to Welsh rapper/songwriter Ren with his viral 2022 song "Hi Ren." Over the course of the eight-plus-minute track, Ren delivers fervorous flows about his struggles with mental health issues and insecurity about his art, all while occasionally breaking down to include some classical guitar showboating. The song was nothing short of epic, despite its stark, drumless instrumentation, and Rens second solo album, Sick Boi (arriving seven years after his self-released 2016 debut Freckled Angels), hits the same intensity as his best-known single with much more traditional pop and hip-hop trappings. Lyrical themes still circle around ongoing issues with chronic illness and nakedly vulnerable depictions of how physical health and mental health effect each other (in particular on the title track and the darkly catchy "Suic*de"), but the production is massive and beat-focused. Ren doesnt avoid difficult topics as much as he revels in them, but throughout the lengthy album he finds a way to make even the most unsettling subject matter sound friendly. "Murderer" is depraved and silly, but the smoothly sung choruses and bounding instrumental give it a lighthearted feel that would sound at home on early-2000s Top 40 radio. "Masochist" is even more violent, and throughout the album Ren gets into the depths of his psychic and bodily pain in true dark-night-of-the-soul fashion. Throughout Sick Boi, however, the focus stays on his slippery post-Eminem flows, enticing hooks, and huge, celebratory beats, making even Rens bitterest lyrical pills easy to swallow. ~ TiVo Staff

ウェールズ出身でブライトンを拠点とするラッパーのレン・ギル。初作『Freckled Angels』(2016年)以来となる8年ぶりのセカンド・アルバムは心身の不調と闘いながらベッドルームで仕上げたという完全な自作自演作品となり、展開の激しいユニークなトラックもかつてのエミネムを想起させるシアトリカルなラップも実に個性的だ。見事に全英チャート1位を獲得済み。
bounce (C)狛犬