Year of The Roach

Roachkxng- Year of the Roach

“To be a king and wear a crown is a thing more glorious to them that see it, than it is pleasant to them that bear it.”

Swimming in thoughts, drowning in reality. The music that gets us through the day, the nights, the moments of pain, the moments of dullness and boredom, the moments of struggle are effervescent and temporary. What is difficult about art is what is difficult about life. Its fleeting, meaningful and paradoxical. The artist commiserates on what life means and feels like, the art struggles on what makes life worth living. To be a true artist without boundaries and being visible to the general populace is a life of fearlessness and arrogant humility. There is something about offering oneself to be observed, picked apart, listened to, rejected, praised and critiqued all at once from everyone with no regard to personal internal struggles is brave and humble in its asking for a moment of our time, but also arrogant in believing that somehow what is offered is enriching. This is the polarity of the art world, a seemingly secure respite of the eternal pressures of a fear based capitalistic society. There is this belief that the life of artistic creativity will save us from harsh realities of existence and due to that vocation we are empowered to be the most brutal form of ourselves in all its honesty, pride, danger and beauty.

The social contract between audience and music is dependent on whether we can entertain, provoke emotive response or thoughts. This specific artist does all three. Without a doubt this musical creation from RoachKxng is hip hop, a raw depiction of life’s thoughts and struggles. This contemporary hip hop concept includes the punk as fuck attitude of what personal creativity means rather than following conventions. The album “Year of The Roach” bucks the system and is unapologetically truthful and real. The production is all in house and handled by the emcee/lyricist. This is a one man band declaration of multifaceted skill.

Roachkxng

There are clear influences from contemporary hip hop artists but the striking difference between RoachKxng and others is that his music seems to be rooted in something larger than the southwest sound. He transcends the flavor and attitude of the region and presents something larger. The instrumentation is a mix of lo-fi sounds with jazzy influences and keys throughout that bring an entirely different relaxed vibe that hit with crisp and snappy snares. This project seems to be an honest period of growth for the artist from previous records. His work with Vagabond Mafia is also of importance.. This artist is primed for a large stage and is definitely not one to be slept on. I would watch as his music is bound to make some waves in the scene. Check out his merchandise page as well by clicking the link Merch! Listen to the album here as people across the southwest as already hailing it as a much needed change of pace and solid vibe.