Eyeing the release of the much anticipated new album ‘Mantra No. 9’ next month, UK hip hop favourite Fliptrix serves up a certified banger to kick off the new year with. Given the sonic arc of the first four singles lifted from the album, ‘SM58’ feels like something of a curveball. Teaming up with fellow High Focus label mates, Onoe Caponoe and Ramson Badbonez, ‘SM58’ reflects a distinct change in pace and fluctuation in mood, channeling a new set of energies that have (up to now) gone untrodden.
Fliptrix knew ’SM58’ was going to do exactly what he hoped it would after performing it for the first time (at the same live show that features in the official video). With Onoe Caponoe and Ramson Badbonez in attendance; the crowd responded with insane energy to every verse, the exact same energy Wundrop has perfectly captured in the minimalist, low-frequency production that sees the track expertly traverse the ultra-fine line between orthodox and unorthodox.
The track is the fifth single lifted from Fliptrix’s impending ninth solo album, following on from the hugely streamed ‘Future Ain’t Promised,’ ‘Eden,’ ‘Primordial Soup,’ and the title track ‘Mantra No. 9.’ The album marks 16 years since his first album ‘Force Fed Imagery’ and sees the boom bap OG reconnect with the classic sonics that defined his earlier output.
A legendary hip hop artist within the UK boom bap scene, the London-born lyricist plies his trade as a solo artist, as well as being one-quarter of acclaimed outfit The Four Owls and managing director of the hugely influential High Focus Records. A regular on hip hop podcasts you may have heard him on Romesh Ranganathan‘s ‘Hip Hop Saved My Life.’