A dexterous melody and cadence master capable of oscillating between hip-hop and progressive R&B sensibilities, Durban-born rapper and singer-songwriter Sihle “Blxckie” Sithole has made an about-face to his former ways. Fresh off the press with news of being Def Jam’s newest signee, the SAMA-winning muso is running a proud victory lap with his latest single, “Back Into It”, produced by Mathias Tyner, Lodoni, and Isaiah Kaleo.
Among the leaders of the Gen Z pack in the jungle, Somnyama’s sound is predicated on mirroring what works in the American market, transposing what works into his music, and touching it up with that 033 code-switching and colourful implementation of accents. “Back Into It” is grounded in bass-light trap balanced over a warped piano loop facelifted to lend the song a grim atmosphere.
Blxckie’s imagery-heavy pair of verses in the song belies the party-ready production reminiscent of Kendrick Lamar tackling the subject of alcoholism over a T-Minus cracker on “Swimming Pools (Drank)”, but without that signature Duckworth panache. Arranged into a slideshow of vignettes, the 4LUV composer details scenes at the club with his entourage, who ultimately cross paths with a faceless love interest dead-set on wrapping him around her finger.
Complementing the threadbare beat, hedonism and nightlife are carefully weighted themes under which the sound neither sags nor lags, allowing Sithole the luxury of slowly painting the version of events as depicted in the song with evenly spaced-out pacing. Predicated on braggadocio (“Neck and my wrist full of charms”), poly-syllabic rhymes (“Playin’ that bih like atari / Eat it up like calamari”) and a succinct refrain which sums up the cat-and-mouse interplay between Blxckie and the nameless foil, “Back Into It” rises in intensity and tension as gradually as it defuses action before it explodes right at the pinnacle of the climax.
As Blxckie consolidates his position as one of the forerunners of the Mzansi hip-hop scene, “Back Into It” is a soft announcement aimed at the global scape about who he is and what he’s all about. He does well enough to not lose himself in the bid for radical expansion.
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