Stiff Lauren & Var Lewis: “World In A Frame” – a truly universal, intensely analytical track

A couple of years since he first release Stiff Lauren has again changed the game with his stunning, transcendent new single alongside Var Lewis further expanding the definition of what hip-hop music can accomplish. On each subsequent release Lauren continues to demonstrate growth, gaining in fame and prestige while building on the qualities that are securing him those accolades.

“World In A Frame” is a truly universal, intensely analytical track – one that confronts the industry, the grind, the rewards, together with all the intrinsic concerns and efforts, while further amplifying their significance.

More successful and satisfied with himself than ever, Stiff Lauren continues to reflexively balance out this analysis by dredging up old demons and initiating new beefs. Whether this is a psychological response or his current artistic mode is hard to determine, but his cogent examination of society has now expanded to an epic level.

Torn between the promise of the future and the wistful burden of the past, Stiff Lauren & Var Lewis make a track that celebrates the high life while undercutting it with a persistent focus on the costs of that achievement.

This is admittedly a common conflict for rising artists, who in gaining celebrity don’t realize that they’re losing their original selves to nothingness – “Everybody in the world they wanna be you. If they only knew or were able to see through – the money, the hoes, the cars, the fame, all the bullshit that came with this game”, hollers Lauren.

While Stiff Lauren is a technician, working within micro-focused networks of dense, allusive wordplay, Var Lewis is a stylist, with a broad platform of slogans, catch phrases, and goofy puns spouted over the hard, banging and crystalline sound bed.

A corollary to the track’s dominant conflict, the most interesting tension that develops on “World In A Frame” is between much-needed normalcy and opulent luxury. Stiff Lauren & Var Lewis lay it on the line, and tells it like it is. No one wants to work, but everyone expects a fast buck. Which means someone is going to be selling out somewhere along the line!

Both Lauren and Lewis are skilled enough to carry off this prose with the effortlessness needed to make it credible. Stiff Lauren easily plumbs unexplored emotional depths by accordingly escalating his trademark frankness and high-level scrutiny. The result is a track that is truly explosive and exhilarating.

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