Malimal: “Sept.Ember” – more than just a collection of songs

Malimal is Brooklyn-born emcee that learned his love for hip hop in the South. In the late 2000’s he joined the BlazeUp Clique who put out the small hit “Teddy Overload”. Growing mic skills and restlessness pushed Malimal to go for his solo career. The self-proclaimed ‘Black Nerd Militant’ began to perform all over NYC. With a solid playlist and a focused vision, Malimal released his debut mixtape “Sept.Ember” which featured the smashes, “Fresh One in The Building” , “Love Vs Money (The Hypocrite Dream)”, and “Anytime”.

Malimal loves both a simple hook and an advanced song structure. The oscillations of his songwriting are noticeable, from the confidence of the choruses to the millisecond contortions in his voice. Songs like “Anytime (Prod. Santana2k12)” is Malimal at his nonchalant best.

“Cigarette Ashes (Feat. The Star Roddy Rod) (Prod. By Sean Junior)” sees him ply all the gravelly aggression in his flow. All told, from his flows to his punchlines, he sounds totally well-rounded.

“All Day (Freestyle)” and “Fresh One In The Building (Prod. by Killing Spree)” showcases his best rapping skills, spitting lines so fast, internally rhyming and flowing faster than your ear can keep up, on par with any other emcee out there. It’s brilliant, really.

Malimal makes you stick it out till the end on “Outside (Prod. By Charles Hamilton)”, through all his hardcore imagery, anti-hater thinking and weird sampled production, which simply says “Fuck you. You can’t stop me!”

In between, Malimal is capable of laying down some very smooth and soulful bangers like “Love Vs. Money (The Hypocrite’s Dream)(Prod. By Sean J)” and “Exhibit M (Heaven’s Gate)”. Musically, the mixtape is a rich, cinematic arc that straddles a variety of beat styles and often finds itself a couple of steps removed from the overused deliveries by some contemporary rappers.

Over alternately lush, and even lusher production, and in collaboration with a number of different producers, Malimal sets a hectic and urgent tone to proceedings apart from the handful of more laid-back tracks.

All throughout “Sept.Ember”, the raps are self-conscious; not pandering. They’re overt; not obnoxious. They’re cheeky; not annoying. As the mixtape forges ahead, more pieces of the puzzle are revealed, the extent to which “Sept.Ember” is more than just a collection of songs becomes increasingly apparent.

The screenplay, which is embedded into the songs  makes everything a little clearer: Our society is fleeting, Malimal, like the rest of us, is so keenly aware that it’s happening—he’s just trying to hold on while everything around is collapsing – decaying relationships, crumbling cultures, and waning personal values are tackled head-on here. You should shut the fuck up and just listen to him!

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