Sir Michael Rocks – “Populair”

Sir Michael Rocks debuted a very stream-of-conscious, snare heavy Populair today (September 10). The sound won’t surprise those that know Mikey’s history of musical exploits. It might surprise the newcomers though – for its apparent uncoordinated style. The Matteson, Illinois emcee linked up with Michigan’s Chuck Inglish back in ’07 and has been dropping variations of this laid back, designer-heavy, globetrotter flow since. Populair doesn’t surprise me, but it doesn’t impress me either.

Personally, I rock with Banco over his newest, as I feel like it was a more complete project. I can still hear the rapper shining through on Populair but his voice is often overshadowed by the hectic nature of the beats. It’s a style, I get it. He wants more drums, less melody. He can do what he wants but his lines would hit harder if the snares, and drums in general, were tailored more.

On the tail end album we hear Sir Michael Rocks get atypically sincere. The normally self-confident emcee says, “Back in September I wanted to kill myself, I was homeless in LA, money running low.” Like I said on “Outer Space,” it’s hard to make it out of that area without some sort of deep-seeded insecurity. It sounds like Mikey has been going through some personal shit, and for that, I’m glad he chose to put this out there instead of doing something crazy. Plus Banco is a college kid now, explaining, “arts school – I’m tying new things,” on “Quality Time Lapse.” I’m not really feeling this project but I have high hopes for the ex-Cool Kid.

Stream the project in its entirety on Soundcloud.

Complex premiered.