Almost since the birth of rap
music, the genre has had an inextricable connection to gang culture and drug
activity. The dopeboy-turned-radio-superstar persona adopted by many of today’s
artists make “trapping” look downright glamorous. If you’re skeptical, take a
look at the Billboard charts. If Future’s “Move That Dope” is still in the Top
10, the point has made itself.
But this is all the more reason Cincinnati MC, Sleep,
with is unfiltered perspective and gripping sincerity, could be one of the most
important voices emerging from the underground.
More than a rapper, Sleep is
a story teller unfurling the tale of Damon Winton: a run of the mill kid who,
as a result of an upbringing fraught with poverty, molestation, self-mutilation
and drug abuse is pushed to a heart-wrenching breaking point.
Sleep is no amateur in the
concept-album style, and fans of his debut release, Lockland 95, will recognize the no-holds-barred attitude of his
narration. However, where his previous effort focused on nearly a dozen of the
characters that made up his childhood, Branded finds its resonance by
focusing on a single narrative. Track by track, layer by layer, Sleep shapes a
character with dimension. Damon begins to feel like someone we all know;
someone whose pain we can all feel.
“Heart racing/the beating is
like a stampede/crying as I’m walking down the damn street” Sleep spits over
the fragmented wails and gritty backbeat of “Question 1”. Branded hits
hard and heavy from the get go. This project couldn't have found a better match
than producer Dope Antelope on the boards. By melding subtle gangsta rap
influences with ambient cloud rap elements, Antelope creates a juxtaposing
soundtrack that reflects the internal conflict of Sleep’s character. Record
scratches chime with hollowed, echoing vocal samples. Urgent, screeching piano
riffs clash against deep, steady baselines. As Sleep’s lyrics simultaneously
resist his desires to be both callous and vulnerable, Antelope creates a
landscape both haunting and angsty to match.
Branded: The Damon Winton
Story is a
collection of memories from just one person’s life. However, together, each
trial that Damon faces offers a greater commentary on the thug mentality that
our society tends to glorify, and the vulnerability of a child’s psyche to that
influence. One of the more unique trademarks, which make Sleep’s
performance so memorable, is his use of spoken-word samples and monologues.
“The children of children are trapped by adults,” an unknown speaker asserts on
“Question 1”, “who fail them then jail them to hide the results... The children
of children while still young and sweet/are all damned and programmed for
putrid defeat” Prepare yourself for a wakeup call. For Sleep, sugar coating is
simply against his artistic creed.
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