Mute Davinci’s latest project surrounds you with blissful good vibes and a fine balance between rap and melody. Loaded with intentional depth and a consistent level of determination and drive, the playlist keeps things personal but accessible – there’s a motivational element to Davinci’s sense of ambition and hard work, yet with the music being so calm and colourful, this emerges in a collected, confident and peacefully effective way.
Nobody starts things up and is all of this, a beautiful melody and an equally entrancing, gentle soundscape. Davinci’s voice has a certain whispered soul about it, letting this calm introduction work its magic with character and freshness.
As things progress, the soundscapes hold close to a similar purity – piano led trails and light beats, fragments of cinematic audio. Naw brings that familiar vocal tone back but now there’s a level of pace and slight intensity. The story-line has grit, struggle and unwavering honesty – the quickness means you’re keen to listen over to really capture every line. Davinci’s flow is stunning here, the vocal rhythm is superb – the arrangement of each line has a unique strength about it, and once again it contrasts with the dreamlike delicacy of the backdrop. A definite early highlight and well worth listening to more than a couple of times.
Be Around smooths things out again with a soulful, jazz-like aura and a calmer, scene-setting string of lyrics. The switch from hook to verse helps create a worthy dynamic. The hook is beautiful, a gorgeous melody and a notably emotional, flawless delivery.
High energy and intensity kicks back into gear as Face The Facts begins to play. A heavy beat, a haunting, descending riff, and a much clearer cut, louder and more crisp leading voice. The track brings a sense of carefree confidence, and the performance and the way the beat develops all works well to represent this. Arrangement-wise you appreciate the hit of a song like this following the smoothness from before. As always the flow and the lyrics are on form, there’s a laid-back and slightly more fun nature to these but again you welcome that change in direction and that slight lift in mood.
Bursting through with every bit of grit and weight and purpose is the track RIP Jumpout – another absolute highlight for the pure chemistry between such an emotive soundscape, such a varied and passionate flow, and such a captivating and meaningful story-line. Davinci crosses the border between poetry and personality, keeping things real but also beautifully expressive and often cleverly metaphorical. The music is of the highest quality and the lyricism showcases an artist with an intelligent, articulate and deeply thoughtful writing style. This track is powerful, utterly heart-breaking and performed with genuine feeling. An unmissable song for 2019 on the whole and a definite stand-out from the EP.
Do Not Disturb brings things to a mildly eclectic finish – a thick and distorted bass-line, a trap vibe and a quiet, rhythmic vocal line offer a sense of familiarity among today’s hip hop landscape. There’s a similar feeling of intention to this as there was to the opener – it leaves you with a vision of the artist as driven and unwilling to stop until things have started to snowball. That aura is inspiring, it motivates the listener to seek ambition and drive within themselves, to work hard towards whatever it is they want – the weight of this beat helps the feeling energize and stay with you after listening.
Breaking News is a quality project and one that will be easy to revisit as a go-to bit of escapism or encouragement whenever the moment needs it.
Download or stream the project here. Find & follow Mute Davinci on Instagram or YouTube or visit his Website. Check out more of the best independent releases via our Hip Hop Playlist.
Thank you so much. Truly humbled.
No worries, a pleasure to write about – thank you!