We Reviewed The Guy Who Confronted Kanye West and Rapped in his Face

Last weekend a stranger walked up to Kanye West on the street and started rapping in his face. This was surprising because (A) Kanye West didn’t flip out and go HAM and (B) Kanye West let him finish and didn’t interrupt.

Lots of up-and-coming rappers think that the best way to promote is to spam on Twitter, write sob stories underneath YouTube videos, approach people in the mall asking if “They like hip-hop,” and relentlessly WhatsApp journalists, but it’s not. The dude—who is called Simbaa—showed that you just need to grow some balls and shout at a famous person because the next evening he featured on TMZ, Complex, and XXL.

Unfortunately (and predictably), every story focused on Kanye West being “a really kind person” and not on Simbaa. So, in the interest of working out whether Simbaa is a guy with balls bigger than his brain or an actually good rapper, we tracked down his Soundcloud and listened to a few of his tracks.

The first track on his Soundcloud is called “RedruM” which is “murder” spelt backwards. It’s taken from his EP which, I’m going to assume, is called sips, because that’s what it says in the artwork. Why do new rap artists insist on messing with the organisation of words? Did Simbaa commit a murder in reverse and then write a song about it? Is he trying to force meaning on something that doesn’t require meaning? Either way, the production is nice, his flow is pretty tight, but sadly it’s a sub-par Underachievers b-side.

Simbaa is the king of marketing. “RedruM” was uploaded 17 hours ago and the second track, “Southern Cinderella,” appeared on Soundcloud one day ago; dude knows how to strike when the buzz-iron is hot. Mostly, the track is a bunch of words that don’t really mean anything and something about Cinderella but still, the production is hot. The beat has Brainfeeder written all over it.

Next up is the same track… but with a Bee Gees and Nat King Cole intro/skit/whatever! Thanks for giving us the choice, appreciate that. Every rapper should delete the pointlessly long and irrelevant introduction to every track on their mixtape.

This one is called “Treasure in My Mind” and the artwork features a baby sipping on molly water or something, which is 10/10. This one is my favorite; although that could be because it’s only a minute long, which is the same amount of time it takes to do my other favorite thing in the world.

The first rule of Fight Club is don’t talk about fight club and the first rule of hip-hop is… don’t rap over a DOOM beat! Joey Bada$$, Earl Sweatshirt, every young-rapper in a snapback is guilty of doing it and it’s become a tick-box that sadly, is determined to get you a low-grade in class. It’s like trying to take a Masters in Algebra when you’re set to pass highschool Math; you’ll slip up. "Rhymes like Dimes" sounds like it’s been recorded using a Tamagotchi which TBH is a good thing: “So fixated on what’s ahead/I ain’t got no time to watch my back” won’t have Anthony Fantano reaching for the dictionary and gushing anytime soon. A guy in the comment section has described Simbaa as a “Young Tupacc” though, so at least someone is on board.

Overall, I'd give Simbaa a solid 6/10. He's still a work-in progress. But he does get massive props for grabbing his chance and going up to Yeezy in the street. Kid Cudi got a massive record deal because he walked up to Kanye West in a Virgin Megastore; Simbaa probably would have got one too if only there were still Virgin Megastores or massive record deals.

Lev's on Twitter. Follow him - @LevHarris1.

Related:

Kanye West, The Blogger: Remember Kanyeuniversity.com, The Brilliantly Insane Blog of Yeezus

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