Let me hit you up real quick on this artist I came across named Silqe.
A rapper, ten years in the game, straight outta Reading. I initially heard his cover of Chipmunk's/Chris Brown's "Champion" and I was diggin it. He's recently put out a new mixtape entitled "Welcome Back Hip-Hop" and if I'm to be honest, that is the full vibe I got from listening to it, Hip-Hop, real Hip-Hop. See, these days with alotta lyricists its hard to say what genre these MCs and rappers are doing - Is it Pop? Is it Grime? Is it Techno? Or "chart music"? We've all come across that confusion, but there is absolutely no confusion what so ever when listening to "Welcome Back Hip-Hop".
There are some amazing instrumentals used, good vibes, smooth samples, classic Hip-Hop beats, the ones you forgot about and when you hear you're like "Oh my dayz he's sick", yeah, those ones. I felt a mix of reminiscence and new music. For example, one track by the rapper called "Good Sign" uses the classic "Song Cry" beat from Jay-Z. That alone takes you back and gets you zoned, but then listening to Silqe's twist on the track, you become enlightened with a story of pregnancy scares and parenthood preparation.
I would like to pick a few stand out tracks but to be honest the entire mixtape stood out to me. There were no fillers or tracks that were hard to engage with. They all had my attention and all had my admiration. The self-titled track "Welcome Back Hip-Hop" was a real powerful track as the instrumental was one of those ones that just get you in the mood for music immediately, perfectly laced with serious lyrical content. Following that is the track "Point Proven" which showed Silqe spittin a more faster flow, again hittin hard. And then there was "Work Alot" which had an old school Carribbean/Reggae vibe to it. But as I said, the entire mixtape stood out. In both lyrical content and sound there was mad variety, diversity etc.
Silqe definitely stayed true to Hip-Hop throughout this mixtape, nuttin watered down at all. With a variety of different flows, concepts and beats all in an 11-track collection all hosted by DJ Skitz you're bound to be attracted to the music.
This post is definitely long overdue as the mixtape was released earlier this year but it's still worth talking about, and if you've never heard a Silqe track before this is a great introduction for you.
You can check out Silqe's Facebook Fan Page for his most recent work including freestyle videos and acoustic sessions and much more. To visit the page click here.
And to download the "Welcome Back Hip-Hop" mixtape click here!
I'll leave you with the first Silqe track I heard as I mentioned earlier, enjoy it, and go cop that mixtape!
Holla at you lot soon, Ridez
