Misc. Day – Huey P.

When the “P” stands for power in the ensemble, dj blackpower A.K.A. New York City’s own MIKE is the continuation of spoken word over stoned, but often cinematic loops and performances.

Like a student film gone global, BLP2020: “King Of The Night” holds both the beauty and grace of the jungle’s black panther; but has the grasp on an audience to become humanistic and understood.

Opening with “Power,” dj blackpower is the dichotomy of man where he transforms to be his greatest ally but also his biggest and most fearsome foe. The balance as explained by narration from MIKE, “I balance good with every inch of grief, shook. I buried Ma, buried all the pieces in the look.”

While it can’t be just the focus on the doom and gloom of the cityscape, dj blackpower’s highest moments on BLP2020: “King Of The Night” are on the moments of self-acclimation toward recovery. As “Power” continues on, MIKE illustrates, “Couldn’t dare the doubt, couldn’t care to leave, not like I should. How you wear the crown? Never touched the street, not a foot. Food done came around, never touched my teeth, fuck the cook.”

As dj blackpower marches on with this duality present in the narration, BLP2020: “King Of The Night” graces between being either Icarus or the bull in this novel of chasing oneself. The intricacies follow the rhyme schemes and production of “Rootin4?” where MIKE becomes more grounded than ever

The looped production is a Sunday dream of meditation where the piano riff is gentle but comes to a full package when paired with these harder smacking bass and snare snaps. The MPC keyboard takes the audience into a clouded recovery while MIKE’s vocals pull them back down to the concrete.

He illustrates, “In bed like it’s glued to my spine, if it send it, then I’m shooting precise. Then neglect what it do to my mind, all this death and pursuit in my eyes.” Like a lonesome train rolling through the station to Coney, dj blackpower’s production is both isolative and somehow crowded. They work this ability to control the audience, without ever seeming to overpower them.

Segments like ”Mhm!” are godly for their shift in sonic departure where the sampled vocals are simple, consisting only of a hummed one-second loop but adds a warmth to the piece. The percussion is basic, but the resonance that dj blackpower adds creates more layering to the cake, contributing as a baseline for the audience to follow.

MIKE begins to describe, “We keep that energy, I step my game up. My soul is hurting shots of Hennessey had lit up the K.” The track “Mhm!” feels shorter, but the runtime clocks in at around a nearly two-minute average for the nine-track EP. Finding itself seconds away from glory, rainfall hits and drowns out the narration from MIKE.

Leaving dj blackpower as this firework of production, the beauty of the record comes more from the instrumentation and the way that MIKE can follow as a fitting narrator. The storybook has no fairy tale ending but instead looks at the sunrise as one more reason to survive the grueling night.

Listen To BLP2020: “King Of The Night” Here!!! – BandCamp/Spotify/iTunes