Sonnyjim - Mud In My Malbec
I’m rarely impressed by rappers these days. If you like rap music nowadays, you probably like raps like this:
“I just took some molly, what else? (Hey) Got some bitch from Follies with us (‘scuse me, ‘scuse me) She gonna fuck the squad, what else? (I swear) I'ma fuck her broads, what else? (Get, get!) Bitch from Pakistan, what up? (Foreign!) Ferraris and them Lambs, what else? (skrrrt) 'Bout to fuck this club up, what else? (Get, get!) (Metro Boomin wants some more, nigga!)”
This is what we are presented with when we ask for hip-hop: steaming-turd-hot-garbage lyrics over wack ass trap beats that I can make on my iPhone in 5 minutes (ask me and I shall show thee).
There are a handful of new-ish rappers that I definitely fuck with. But they are few and far between. So when I was told by one of my homies to listen to a rapper out of Birmingham called “Sonnyjim” I was quite reluctant because I thought it might be a pile of shite, like those Future bars that I made you read a minute ago (sorry). But as chance would have it, and because sometimes the universe moves in mystery ways, I was listening to a mix by Houseshoes from his Magic show on dublab.com and heard this smooth-ass beat with a smooth-ass voice dropping dime bars all over it. The accent was English so I was naturally intrigued. Further investigation led me to discover that this was the same Sonnyjim that my boy had told me about. So, I jumped on his Bandcamp and listened to his new album, “Mud In My Malbec”. And then I listened to it again. And again. And again. And again. And I’ve been bumping it ever since. Because it is some of the firest rap music I’ve heard in a while.
I realised today that I liked it a lot when I was listening to the same Houseshoes mix and “Doughboy Baker” came on again, my immediate reaction being, “this is one of the best songs I’ve ever heard”, which is probably because the joint gets me feeling all kinds of shades of Steve McQueen:
“Barry Horowitz, Rolled the super sonic spliff, I’m eating nacho chips, Chillin in the rocket ship, About to hog roast a pig On a charcoal pit, Garlic dip grilled the langoustine on a stick. Out in Rio on my Ronny Biggs, Standing on a monolith Scuffin up my Ralph Lauren moccasins.”
Each line is dripping with imagery and it’s hard not imagine this whole scene as he lays it down, with an infectious flow full of internal rhymes and similes. And it’s consistent too. The whole album has this great narrative feel to it, almost like a rags to riches story which comes right out of the same school as the rappers Ka, Roc Marciano and Action Bronson. He also drops bars with nods to his Indian heritage (which I think is dope) with lines like “at the Interconti, backin India like Indra Gandhi” and being “back in the ends like Sukhshinda Shinda”.
Out on the impressive Daupe Records, he’s in good company on the record with fellow label-mate Westside Gunn dropping a dope verse on “Red Mullet”, and heavy hitters like Heems and Quelle Chris joining him on “Al Jazeera” and “Dorchester” respectively.
Go check it and cop it from the bandcamp or iTunes or wherever. You won’t be disappointed. That is, unless you’re a Future fuckboy fan listening to fuckboy raps. In which case, you shouldn’t really be here.
https://daupe.bandcamp.com/album/mud-in-my-malbec
