Browsing Tag

Quincy

Need To Rest: Boston’s Hmmf battles to cope with the sad memories on ‘I Can’t Sleep’

Taken off his incredibly real new album that includes some eye-opening knowledge about PTSD called ‘Tears‘, Hmmf impresses highly with his latest single that needs a night light to calm his mind called ‘I Can’t Sleep’.

Dominic Pappas aka Hmmf, is a Quincy, Massachusetts-born, Boston, Massachusetts-based hip-hop artist who flows with so much meaning attached to each line that he drops.

Hmmf feels like the ultimate underdog warrior, a man who raps with a raw tone that falls into your lap and swerves viciously, to leave you impressed with his skills but concerned with his current mindset.

He raps with such a haunting sadness and anxiety, the street stories of losing so many of his friends growing up have caught up to him. His mind so locked up at the moment, as he searches for the key that will unlock all of his sorrows away into the sky, so he can breathe properly again.

This is the message of trying to sleep so bad but you just can’t — with too many worries and flashbacks that are keeping the mind wide awake — the brain needs healing and a rest so bad, so it can shut off and reboot.

I Can’t Sleep’ from top notch Boston emcee Hmmf, rustles the duvet of your mind, as you over-think and your eyes feel so heavy, as the dreaded demons follow your each thought. This is the paranoid warning to get your head right, before you are disturbed into tossing and turning — when you need to be resting and replenishing your armor — so you can achieve those dreams that are waiting for you under your awaiting pillow.

Stream this top track on Spotify and check out his Twitter for more updates.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Juice Wayne – Living The Dream

The wonderfully named Juice Wayne has gone on record to make clear that the reason he makes music with a rap or hip-hop edge is not because of a conscious choice but more because of that how the music comes through to him. Whilst there is a rap verse at the core of the song, A Dream We Tried To Live is built out of so much more as well, country-pop acoustica, raw rock power chords, staccato beats and soaring choruses. 
And that is the art of it, rather than starting with a genre and building songs which fit neatly into that box, why not just start with a thought, an urge, a need to get something off of your chest and then just see where it goes. No boundaries, no preconceptions. That is what Juice Wayne ends up with and by taking such an approach he ends up with a song that just tramples generic divides, something more people should be prepared to do.