By :Garfield
Seattle’s got a beast lurking in the underground with DISCONNECT II delivering a temperature check from the north.
Unhindered by corporate censorship or influence, endowed with spotless wordplay, northwestern artist BlkSknn is redefining hip-hop musicianship with his latest official release, Disconnect II. A follow up from the much melancholier project Disconnect released in 2018 which highlighted the toxic traits people fall victim to when choosing material over substance (descriptively phrased “the disconnect starts when you can’t differ your brain from your heart”), the Washington rapper decided to hit the heat switch on part two. This time around BlkSknn is in rare form with melodious samples and unblemished song structure, making this 5-track album stretch for hours with its replay value.
If you’re not familiar with BlkSknn, his style is most comparable to Vince Staples in the early stages of his career. A particular trait for both artists is their black angst disguised as elite NBA basketball shooters (play Baron Davis by Vince Staples and Len Bias by BlkSknn back to back). This commonality usually means an abandonment of the ‘money, clothes, and hoes’ mentality, and instead rely on more versatile song structure and metaphorical references. By utilizing elements like pre-chorus and bridges, BlkSknn flows seamlessly from verse to verse in a specific, definite, and vivid manner. Couple this with the elite sample selection, beat progression, and drum kit variation from producer Soufend Music, you’ll have trouble believing this project is literally less than 10 minutes long with the amount of the times you hit repeat.
A key to gaining visibility for upcoming and non-mainstream hip-hop artists in 2020 is the ability to maximize your reach using social media and creating something your fans can react to. Under the instagram handle N_wordscissorhands, BlkSknn devoted his page strictly to promoting his music using movie and TV clips fused with audio from Disconnect II, which apparently helped him garnish 15,000 plays on Spotify within the projects first 3 months. Could this type of social media promotion be a possible blueprint for hip-hop artists who attempt to navigate the business in our current age? Only time will tell.
Follow BlkSknn on Instagram for his newest drops at: N_wordscissorhands
Check out the 5-track release Disconnect II on Spotify here: