With his agenda fixed on a takeover of global magnitude as he glides on a Def Jam contract with his signature on it, Durban-born rapper and singer-songwriter Sihle “Blxckie” Sithole has dropped his major label debut titled see u soon. With its advent heralded by the pair of singles “all faxx” and “pull up”, Somnyama’s latest EP elongates his extended play-laden discography, with his newest offering being first his body of work since 2022’s The 4Mula.
see u soon is a dualistic eight-song collection of trap and alternative R&B tunes with mild touches of amapiano and dancehall curated by a sprawling ensemble of producers including Herc Cut the Lights, Keyman, DB!, Powers Pleasant, Sucuki, Hollywood Cole, Zach Ezzy, Stacy, Kasumi, and Needlz. The twenty-four-year-old also enlisted contributions from K1llbrady and Beau Nox for this particular outing. With the feature and sound selection synchronised, Blxckie was meticulous enough with the assembly of artists and producers to churn out joints that revisited his old magic without suffering the musical inertia of periodic stagnation.
see u soon artwork
The solder which keeps see u soon glued together whilst assisting to keep it in shape despite the constant polar switches is the ease with which Blxckie slides between his hip-hop persona and his emo side. Whether Yena Yedwa’s found slathering his raps thick with boasts over ebullient trap basslines and distorted pianos such as on “all faxx” or unzipping is heart over string-based minimalist production (“show u love”), the EP is a balancing act from an artist who has a head for genre moderation. There’s pace, wordplay, and cockiness in the opus when the Sydenham Heights native raps, but Blxckie’s facile ability to upend these qualities – converting them to deliberateness, pith, and vulnerability when he phases into R&B mode – provides the record with the stability it needs to move with the consistent flux and frame of water funneled with speed and structure.
The thematic basket contains a little something-something for everybody in Somnyama’s latest musical hamper. see u soon is an ambivalent but competent odyssey which charters the superstar (yet ultimately human) condition of fame (“all faxx”), celebration (“all away”), and love (“show u love” and “pull up”) from Blxckie’s point-of-view. In the masterly exploitation of his musicianship, Sithole neither shies away from indulging himself by blowing his own horn (“amazon”), nor does he forgo playful songwriting, flexing his creativity and surfing over skant trap sound wizardry alongside K1llbrady on the hook-bereft “jobe tawwk”.
Blxckie | SUPPLIED
If see u soon is Blxckie’s curtain-raiser for the world audience, then the EP has been enough an introductory spectacle of mind-tingling entertainment as it is a soulful exhibition, a promise those who didn’t know him before can hold him to for his future projects. Packed chock-full with energy and heart, the EP holds the ambition of a prequel work which foreshadows the existence of a successor greater than it in scale and scope. With beginning of his new chapter concluded, the only way to go is up, and this project has provided the rap-inclined crooner with the impetus needed to aspire for greater heights.
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