Here’s some hip-hop for those who think the genre is stagnating. It’s abrasive, it’s pensive, and it can burn to those exposed it like a frigid breeze. Klassik’s EP Winter is one of those diamonds in the rough.
The EP starts with “STRNGRS”. It’s a grimy track with tounge-twisting barspitting rap. It passes the test for music to walk around town in dirty snowy, salty, sandy shoes with. Winter must be unpleasant where he’s from.
My personal favorite has to be “Andromeda”. Anyone who’s producing beats with triplet feels and vocals equipped with 3 part harmonies and near-clipping screams is taking a risk. Just wait till the chorus; the melody above the vocal harmony brings images to the mind of a Disney story unhappily ever after. The keyboard and bass move together fluently, even with the descending fills the 5 string bursts out. There’s gotta be 80 tracks in this recording. Every time you listen to it you’ll hear more sounds you didn’t before. Those sort of auditory hallucinations coming to life are beautiful experiences to have while listening to music, especially from a genre with such ubiquitous and lackluster presence as hip op
He is a musician first, rapper second. His vocals on tracks like the chorus in “Mind over Matter” demonstrate his abilities clearly. The harmonies are lush and reverb drenched while sub bass lulls the low end and trap hi hats glitter across the bars. He spits melodically, that kind of voice that violates the boundary between talking and singing. It’s drowsily calculated. “If the only way is up there’s no sense in looking down.” Rings in my head as the track ends.
The EP is aptly titled. It’s music to bump in the blizzard. It works in perfect tandem with the heavy snowfall out my window as I write this. He’s opened for the likes of Talib Kweli and Kendrick Lamar. The Madison, WI rapper wins award after award out there, and shows no signs of slowing down. If you like other Midwestern young heavy hitters like Chance the Rapper, you’d be currently daydreaming of the collab to come from a session like that too. Do yourself a favor, don’t sleep on Klassick. Who knows where he’ll be in 4 seasons.