MIKE

Weight of the World

MIKE centers this album around being a black man stricken with grief and depression. This is a moment of catharsis and release in a time when everyone is, to some extent, trapped in their own heads and isolated amidst a pandemic.

Drenched in the nostalgic reverb of sadness and yearning, the “Weight of the World” certainly lies on the heavy shoulders of emcee MIKE. His powerful wordplay and jolting cadence is nothing to fuck with, still showing much versatility on the mic and on many a dreamy, hypnagogic beat. Its presentation is just as plunderphonic-infused as his 2018 record “Black Soap”, but it’s overall subject matter and plentiful theme shines brightly through the doldrums as if to ... read more

2020 MUST HEAR ALBUM #23

If not for Run The Jewels this would be my favourite hip hop record so far this year, I'm seriously seriously impressed by this. MIKE so effortlessly incorporates his flows in to these really unsettling and vaporwave inspired instrumentals that it almost feels like this whole album just takes place in some sort of strange dystopian universe. It's a combination that could have just as easily turned out to be an awful mess yet it never feels messy at all, it feels very ... read more

While not as overtly melancholic as Tears of Joy, it's clear that MIKE is continuing to find ways to live with his grief, settling-into a more laid-back style characterized by a series of often playful, short vignettes on his newest full-length, Weight of the World. While Tears of Joy seemed to linger in its pain, a still-open wound, Weight of the World is characterized by a much quicker pacing, particularly in its production (the project is mostly self-produced, by the way), as MIKE jumps from ... read more