[Review] Flex – ‘Still me’ “an awesomely polished and powerful piece of hip-hop”
‘Still Me’ is an awesomely polished and powerful piece of hip-hop with a mellow and almost jazz-inspired musicality that really brings something fresh to the stage. Flex’ lyricism takes on a fairly unique flow, this somewhat robotic delivery of the verse lines creates quite a striking contrast with the synth heavy, dreamlike ambience of the backdrop. The hook comes at the right time to add a further dynamic and keep audiences interested, the melodic introduction here leaves a little more space within which the instrumentation really shines brightly.
Once the leading artist’s rap vocal returns there’s a fusion of poetic storytelling and freestyle spoken word. Again, this type of change creates an effective contrast, so you get to enjoy the blissfulness of the musical backdrop, as well take on the details of the story, and in fact the character and individuality of the artist behind the words. The spoken section adds something really fresh and real to the release. Structurally speaking actually the whole track moves along and evolves in a number of ways that work, and as stated, whenever the vocals fall away, or the mix evens out, the music is creatively bright and soaked in captivating riffs and electronic ambience that’s notably easy to relax to.
This idea of the track being easy to relax to is one of its strongest selling points. The music lays out the good vibes, and the energy and passion of the leading vocalist adds a further layer of motivation and positivity or hopefulness. There’s a laid back nature to the lyrics on occasion, but for the most part the subject matter deals with doing your own thing, going your own way, working towards the things you want, staying true to yourself. All of this adds value.
By Rebecca Cullen
Rebecca is a Musician and writer from Manchester, UK, with an MA in Song Writing
