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The work of Lagos musician VNTAGEPARADISE is deeply reliant on unpredictability. Released last year, his album The Parable of the Sensei is a wild melange of influences, spiraling from forward looking post-punk to vaporwave rap. It’s the work of a music lover who cannot help but throw everything he’s been influenced by into the pot, and almost all of the tracks on the release proceed from this giddy sensibility. “Blinded” is perhaps the most giddy track on the album, a candy-coated hyper-distorted guitar number filled with a dizzy sense of glee.
With vocals enhanced to such a degree that it sounds like he’s inhaling helium, he sings about life’s daily struggles: “Never go away/Two times but it still fall another way/I tried but the stress come another day.” The entire time he sings, an almost too sweet guitar riff plays under him, pushing him forward. Suddenly, this is all surrounded by the glow of reverbed out percussion, literally picking you up and forcing you to not rest in gloom. It’s serene yet snappy, carrying the lightness of a friendly embrace. Embracing this groove, he gently sings the chorus:“You’re blinded/Looking for which way to go.” He doesn’t leave you in this funk for long though, and he decides to offer a jovial bit of guidance around the song’s midpoint. Suddenly everything besides a tapping snare, strummed guitar notes, and his voice drops out of the mix, and over this emptied out beat, he speak-sings, “Look what the Sensei do/Look how the Sensei move/Move like the Sensei would/Let me teach you a thing or two.” He’s a merry teacher with heart of a joker, and he delivers his lessons with delight.
With artists releasing songs at a fast and furious pace, it’s difficult for the average hip-hop head to keep track of it all—no matter how tapped in they are. That’s why we created The Ones, a daily post to highlight the song you need to hear.
Check out previous Ones, and listen to new rap from VNTAGEPARADISE and more on our Spotify playlist.
