Righteous impresses with infectious hooks and gritty, authentic story-telling throughout Built Different’s memorable tune, which is refreshingly raw yet devotedly passionate.
Bringing some much-needed realness back to hip hop’s writing and musicality, Righteous makes fine use of clever, captivating, and deeply moving bars, effective musicianship, and the simple, anthemic appeal of a passionate vocal performance.
Righteous is a 27-year-old rapper from Los Angeles, California, who creates drill music, trap music, and lo-fi hip hop under his independent label Murda Empire.
Built Different is hypnotic in a way that I’ve never experienced before. You’ll wonder whether you blinked and missed it in just three and a half minutes. The mix itself is massive, with vast slabs of sound compressed such that everything seems louder than everything else, and there’s a fantastic sense of whirling excess to it all, giving it a psychedelic flavor.
The sound has integrity for an artistically unconstrained artist, with character threads running throughout – without detracting from each new release’s unique and engaging paths. Righteous, who is only twenty-seven years old, is already blazing a trail in hip hop.
This is quite well-crafted, and I’m sure the voice sessions alone took a long time to prepare and organize. It was impressive, but it was over far too soon. It’s well worth your time to watch.
Follow Righteous on Instagram.
