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NEGRO

by Pink Siifu

Released April 8, 2020

Reviewed May 17, 2020

Top tracks (based on community voting)
DEADMEAT (18%), Black Be Tha God NEGRO. (wisdom.cipher) (17%), we need mo color. (17%)

The struggles of being African-American has bred a wealth of amazing art reflecting on the topic over the years, and Siifu delivers one of the most poignant, in your face, and direct confrontations of the subject yet. At 20 songs and 37 minutes, a lot of the tracks are presented as small vignettes in a grander picture. One moment you’ll be given some intricately spliced news recordings mixed with historical speeches, and seconds later, Siifu will come in screaming or splicing in another conversation that’s relevant to the previous samples. It creates a very disjointed project that reflects the shattered lifestyle that one is brought up in as an African-American. You’re living peacefully, talking about the future, only to be brutalized and systematically targeted; sometimes you must fight or flight. When Siifu comes in, he sounds like he’s been pushed to his absolute limit and he’s bouncing back, trying to push back even harder than he was. Ferocious walls of noise, choking industrial drums, and his junkyard dog demeanor led to some mind-rattling tracks. It has a few stumbles, but as a whole piece, this is something unique that could change many people’s perspectives. – Jared (8.5/10)


A message of blood-curdling necessity, overlaid with a temperament of blistering physicality makes the latest Pink Siifu record a stop and stare affair. On NEGRO, the young L.A. rapper bottles up the militancy of a Malcolm X and lets every last drop spill out in the form of scathing, hysterical vocal attacks. He portrays the image of black life in America in a chaotically evocative way that has rarely, if ever, been done before. Rugged, experimental, and permanently relevant, it is a breakthrough success. After plenty of shoulder-rubbing with the "post-hop" sphere, Siifu finally carves out a spot that is unequivocally his own. – Enth (8/10)


Released amidst unrest and retaliation, Pink Siifu succinctly soundtracks the current climate of world affairs. Riots, racism, ridicule, and rampant conduct are encapsulated through jarring compositions and experimental sound collages. NEGRO exists in the same realm as Death Grips sonically, but with less of an emphasis on structure and formal listenability. The harsh nature of the material makes it relatively unsettling when put in the context of 2020. Organised noise and confusion sum it all up really. A minute into “ON FIRE, PRAY!” comes as a pleasant break from the dissonant reality of the record—a form of respite. It's nothing short of beautiful. A brief reminder that every cloud has a silver lining or maybe that the main protagonist has become another statistic of the brutality outlined over the course of the project? Visceral and vigorous, NEGRO is like To Pimp A Butterfly pumped through a meat grinder, torn apart and all screwed up. – Peter (7.5/10)


Cam: 10/10 | Jared: 8.5/10 | Enth: 8/10 | Hadley: 8/10 | Dominick: 7.5/10

Peter: 7.5/10 | DeVán: 7/10 | Daniel: 6/10

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