Occasionally a song comes along that strikes you like lightning, and it is unexpected, electric, and impossible to resist. It is not merely another genre-bending experiment, but a daring declaration of an artist who obviously does not have the desire to remain in comfortable little boxes.
It starts with a funky guitar riff that gets your attention right away and creates a sonic environment that is both familiar, yet entirely new. What Shavirus has achieved here is impressive: he has taken the country-rap template that artists such as Lil Nas X made popular and has taken it to grittier, more aggressive places. It has a certain edge to it that goes deeper, a rawness that is not contrived.
The production strikes that right balance between smooth and rough around the edges. The country-flavored instrumentation is confidently rapped over by the alt-rap verses, forming a hybrid that logically should not be working on paper but does so in reality to the point of flying. The delivery is heavy, Shavirus can be heard in every bar, the kind of presence that makes an artist memorable or not.
The thing that impresses me the most is the way in which these seemingly different things co-exist so naturally. The funky guitar does not seem out of place with the hip-hop beats and the country can only complement the rap base. It is genre fusion at its best not as a gimmick, but as real artistic expression.
Heeler Rope is one of those songs that you just can not forget after it ends, the kind of song that makes you go and see what else this artist has in their library. This is something really exciting and Malak Shalom aka Shavirus has done it here, and it is true that the most interesting music is, when artists fail to be bound by traditional borders.