Stanisland Magazine

The hip-hop duo deliver poetic rap against The Alchemist’s soft musical motif

Armand Hammer and The Alchemist have revealed track number three from their highly anticipated collaborative album, Mercy. It’s stunning, and shaping up to be an album of purity for the genre.

Review and Breakdown

The Alchemist’s slick production values are at play once again, through an emotive assembly of strings and long, decaying snares. Lyrically, it’s a poignant fusion that underscores the oppression of inequality and systemic racism, using water as a metaphor.

Its production is a reflective piano arc of adagio energy, fuelled by a moving melody that echoes a history of socio-political commentaries.

The soft, comforting vocals of Silka and Cleo Reed provide another dimension, offering listeners uninvested in hip-hop a way to embrace it. Alongside the compositional finish, there’s a motif for everyone.

Once again, both Elucid are and Billy Woods land soulful bars with artistic permeability. The duo’s elocution of soft yet longing discourse open up a place of vulnarability and resistance.