‘Medusa’ And The Sound FX (Summer Grind Issue 2012)

A lot of the time you find yourself hearing a name and having a certain thought about it or have a particular visual image associated with it. By nature of both a once hated nickname and my general skin tone (and the jeers of my classmates) I took the name Lucius Black. The visual I get when I hear that name is a boy rising up beyond the insults to become the man he didn’t know he could be.
Now try this: think of the name of Medusa.

All at once you’re thinking of a woman turning men to stone, right? We can thank school and the progression of learning for that much. But today I would like to show you that Medusa can have a very different connotation.

Medusa is a mixtape/album from indie artist Sound FX. Now, going back to that previous point, when I heard the name Sound FX I was expecting amazing sounds stacked one on top of the other to make something amazing. Imagine my contentment to find that this is exactly what I got. The production here is quite amazing. No song is rushed or forced in its creation.

Similarly, the rapping is top notch. What I love most about it is how thoughtful a lot of the tracks are.

Case in point, “Dark Paradise”.

For me as an avid listener of hip-hop the track surprised me. The premise of the song is success in the rap game, seeing it as a ‘paradise’ of sorts. Yet as he ponders that he sees the darker side of that paradise, the dangers and the temptations that tend to surround fame. All this is said over this dark, throbbing beat that makes you nod your head and take in the doom sounds of it all.

The rest of this project continues on and invades you sonically. Amazing and gratifying to see that the name isn’t ill placed.

A few more of my favorite tracks include “No Good”, a song that reads like a different type of love song to me but love all the same. The sample on “Glass House” is eerie and creepy but it somehow works well, better than I would have thought.

Also check out “Lana”, “Her Interlude”, and “The Glow”.

Sound FX exceeds my expectations with Medusa. It’s a thoughtful sort of hip-hop with well-crafted beats to back it up. Now the name Medusa means something else to me-good music.



Courtesy of Lucius Black for Royalty Magazine