Album: Sick Boi
Year: 2023
Genre: Hip Hop / Alternative / Electronic / Acoustic
This is a new one for me. Previous to stumbling upon the multi-instrumentalist sensation Ren, I’ve never been wrangled in by a YouTube sensation. Obviously, since I’m writing this, I’m not against it. I’ve just never fallen into the trappings of an artist whose main platform is YouTube. My relationship with Ren’s music began in April this year. I started with his uber-talented busking cover band The Big Push whose fantastic cover of Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” made me listen further and I soon landed on the breakout solo video, “Hi Ren.” What he achieved on “Hi Ren” is one of the most artistic creations I have seen and heard in a very long time. Hell, maybe ever if we’re just talking about video. It’s a 9 minute, initially confusing, emotionally engrossing journey into the existence of a young man’s relatable struggles. I cannot count the times I’ve watched the performance and to this very day it’s still able to jar something emotionally in me. Everything about it fascinates me. The facts that it is played and recorded live, the raw story it tells, the unbridled talent on display, the minimal but effective use of scenery and camera angles and the self-reflection of his unfortunate medical history all play into what is a genius-level piece of art. After the first viewing, I knew this was a person I needed to dedicate attention to in the future and catapulted myself into a continual YouTube rabbit hole discovering the world of Ren’s music and his ever-increasing levels of artistry.
From that moment forward, I did my research into Ren’s back catalog and enthusiastically awaited every future release. The person running the Ren’s online street team sure knows what they are doing, from the timing of song releases, well-placed social media segments, multiple versions of songs, encouraging the viral song reactions market and even a rap battle propelled him toward his million plus subscribers and multiple millions of views. From the information I have, Ren oversees much of this. There have been 12 video releases leading up to this full album, which only has 18 songs total. Remarkably, he has 6 or 7 other current songs receiving above 5 million views that aren’t even on the album. He’s been a busy guy. The end result is him having the #1 album in the UK the week Sick Boi was released. It should also be proudly said that he has no major label backing him. He is an independent artist. It’s exactly what Prince dreamed of! Also, Ren is sick. I mean literally sick (way too long of a story to go into here) and has been recovering from ailments the last 10 years that have plagued his mental and physical health. His personal touch of giving health updates has also endeared him to people. He’s worked this whole time and has come out on top even with intimidating challenges.
Although Ren has touted Sick Boi as a hip hop album, it is much more than that. Certainly, hip hop is the at the heart of this record, especially the majority of the vocal delivery, but it incorporates aspects of alternative, reggae-fusion, new wave, EBM and straight up pop. The other important fact to know about Sick Boi is that Ren is the sole composer on the record. No producer. No engineer. It’s all him front to back. Due to my YouTube obsession with him, I had already heard all but 6 songs on this record, so there weren’t many surprises. Yet, listening to an album in its sequenced entirety is significantly different than hearing one-offs online. I love hearing the production value of the songs. There are aspects that listening on computer speakers don’t do justice in the recording and mixing. Musically, Ren’s songs run the gamut of simple to complex and there are plenty of subtleties in the instrumentation as he explores the use of synths, drum programming, sampled sounds, acoustic stringed instruments and piano.
The album is intensely vocal-centric and it is immediately recognizable that the music is only a backdrop for the vocal performance. What I found from his performances in The Big Push is that Ren commands an extraordinary range and is not one to be boxed in stylistically. He expands this even further with his solo outings on non-album songs such as “Chalk Outlines” and “Humble” which showcase his formidable capability. On this record he incorporates some major league MC skills along with a variety of singing / spoken word techniques. Ren is a talent and it comes to the forefront on the songs “Seven Sins,” “Su!cIde” and “Lost All Faith” which he utilizes multiple styles in a single song. That’s not to say the pure and brutish hip hop nature of the aggressive and semi-political “Animal Flow,” the horrorcore influenced “Masochist” or the somewhat lyrics-in-a-blender nature of “The Hunger” aren’t A-list songs, but they are singularly focused and glued directly to the genre. He also proves he likes to have fun and not everything has to be deathly serious as one will hear on the extremely Beastie Boys influenced “What You Want” and the slightly juvenile “Down On The Beat” will get you moving and smiling and proves he can flow with the some of the heavyweights. The most audacious piece on the album is “The Money Game Pt. 3” which almost seems out of place on the record since it dives more toward Ren’s madness-driven creativity he’s shown multiple times outside of this album. It' is part of a trio of the "Money Game" song and video series and it’s a song that’s very difficult to separate from the video and its stunning, powerfully brooding visuals that present a unique approach to the disease money can become when a person gives their life trying to obtain it. Much akin to “Hi Ren,” it works more like a play than it does a song. It’s definitely the pinnacle of the album.
After listening to the majority of these songs via YouTube, I was very interested in seeing how this album would come together. Due to Ren’s immense and unique talent, many fans give him a blanketed pass on everything he creates. While his innovation and talent cannot be knocked, not everything is exactly perfect. The record plays as a random collection of songs rather than a cohesive assembly with a purposeful scope and sequence. I find this odd since Ren pays so much attention to detail in everything he releases, especially the videos he creates with Samuel Perry-Falvey. The fact that the album’s opus, the aforementioned “The Money Game Pt 3,” is in the fourth spot and not ending the album is odd. I’m sure there is a reason, but it doesn’t flow sonically. The groupings of songs also feel off and doesn’t lead to much variety as the record progresses. The bangers hit hard, but their superiority over other songs make 18 tracks feel unnecessary. Songs such as “Loco,” “Genesis,” “Uninvited” and the album closer “Wicked Ways” hit like white noise amongst the other songs and feel like they’re there to expand the length of the record. Yes, even someone as talented as Ren is capable of having filler. It happens. Am I just being super picky? Yes, and that’s ok. It’s good to have high expectations of a potential generational talent. Does this have any effect on me listening to this album over and over again? Not in the slightest.
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