From The Inbox…
by Dan-O
We get some very interesting submissions at Freemusicempire (email freemusicempire@yandex.com). It’s horribly difficult for the submitter because the only promise we make is that what you send will be listened too. If it’s ok it won’t be reviewed, no one wants to read about your ok music. I don’t want to write about it. If it’s awful it will be covered but you are not going to like it.
When an 18 year old artist originally from Darmstadt, Germany named Dimillio sent his mixtape Easy not only did I have no comparative reference point for what I was about to listen too (and that’s exciting) but I was genuinely struck by the fact that burgeoning artists are sending their music to some cranky dudes in Maine(who are not frustrated rappers just people who love rap).
Easy is not a classic mixtape. This medium is not like albums. If you had two or three amazing songs on your album and the rest were throwaways people would be mad. In mixtapes that’s normal. Young Dolph is famous and important in rap now and that dude just keeps putting out twenty track mixtapes with two great songs but those songs…are great. As listeners we end up throwing them in the rotation all year and since we didn’t have to pay its all good. Dimillio is the most interesting artist to come out of our inbox yet because the great songs on Easy are gripping and at 18 he has a lot of room to grow.
His high points are really engaging. Take a song like Golden Child with soaring Exile-like production from GMO Beats. Dimillio doesn’t just talk about his relationship to money or women he speaks on god and people laughing at him as a kid. You’ll notice he has a lisp and it forces adjustments in his flow (definitely around S sounds) but Kool G Rap has a lisp and he’s done just fine. I really like the song In My City which represents a textbook mid-tempo banger. He gets points for picking the right beats throughout and being able to knock out a great hook when he puts his mind to it. Stay Click is another sweetly orchestral song that sticks in your mind, the horns are great (and Dimillio addresses his slur flow).
The high points show the promise but that’s not where artists like Dimillio do their growth. When he dives into swag rap or vagina popping it’s not offensive just prevalent enough in the market that it turns the song bland. I think an artist should use their high points as a reference to find their low points. Good artists put out good art but great ones rarely put out bad art. I hope Dimillio listens to Easy again not as an artist or even as an audience member but as a critic and circles his three favorite and least favorite tracks. I hope he gives himself some time to think about what made his favorites so good and his least favorites so forgettable.
Because you can build on your strengths mixtapes are a great way to grow since labels want ready made artists in a world where buyers only buy guaranteed product. Every artist is trying to build a brand you can have faith in. He’s not there but he might get there and I hope I can be the loudmouth shouting it when he does.
stream or download Easy below:
Freemusicempire 
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