Surrender Your Soul to the YYZ
Since the drop of his breakout hit “Kilimanjaro” over a year ago, and the equally immersive track “Distance” prior to that, Killy has been on the grind while simultaneously maintaining his mysterious, secretive profile. After the success of the song, he followed it up with three other songs “No Romance” and “Very Scary,” which both have videos, and the single “Forecast.” In one year he dropped a surprisingly low number of tracks, yet managed to obtain millions of views for every single one. His strategy of dropping the best quality music ultimately paid off and he has gotten attention from some of the biggest names in the underground media scene today, including No Jumper and Montreality.
Despite all of the appraisal that has showered the 20 year old Toronto native, a shadow has always hung over his ability to create a solid project, instead of just single after single. His first official project Surrender Your Soul casts these doubts away. The eleven track project is densely packed with incredibly short, but more importantly, catchy tracks. Throughout the project, Killy switches up his approach to his dark atmospheric style to constantly keep the tracks refreshing and interesting, while maintaining an incredibly high level of consistency. Moreover, Killy is the sole vocalist on the project and with no features. The project showcases Killys talent – he does not need big names to sell or fill up tracks. Instead he relies completely on his ability to create some of the most interesting melodies in the rap world today in combination with his ability to pick distinctive and noteworthy beats.
Killy’s new album is a breakthrough in developing the signature sound for him. Instead of filling up the album with his already released singles and playing it safe, Killy takes the risk by making the majority of tracks new. While a handful of tracks have been teased, there are only two tracks on the project that have have been released prior; “Killamanjaro” and “Distance.” This risk provides fans with more music by the artist at a single period of time than ever before, and proves that he does not need his hit singles to bear the load of carrying an entire project, rather the project tracks can be executed just as well, as seen by the intro titled “Surrender.” Hardcore fans have been hearing snippets of this track for months waiting for the official version. The completed track does not disappoint providing short insight into what the album has to offer; incredibly creative and diverse tracks. Furthermore, Killy not only acknowledges, but celebrates his Canadian upbringing, repeating the bar “surrender your soul to the YYZ”, a shoutout to Toronto’s Pearson Airport. The track glorifies all of Killy’s recent success, honouring his incredible work ethic and everything that he has acquired in the process.
The short intro is then followed by “Killamanjaro,” the incredibly successful track that earned him a Genius interview and attention from the biggest media outlets covering hip hop music today. Despite all of the success, Killy remains unsigned and the 14 million views that the song has gathered on Youtube are all organic. Surrender Your Soul is no different, and has achieved the number one spot on Apple Music’s charts.
The following track “No Sad No Bad,” is arguably the one of the best songs not just on the album, but to come out this year overall. The track is barely over two minutes long, yet it is filled to the brim with experimental production and fantastic vocals by the rapper. Despite being so short, the track has different production for the intro and the outro, constantly engaging with the listener and building upon their expectations. Lyrically, Killy raps about his first time visiting the city of Los Angeles and watching firsthand the success that he has created for himself, leading him to the conclusion that there are “No sad, no bad days in LA.” Apart from meeting with groupies and riding in foreign cars, the trip also pushed his career further than ever before. His “No Romance” video was recorded in LA, and he also recorded his No Jumper interview meeting with other influential rappers like Famous Dex. This happiness comes through on the track, and alongside the synthesizer heavy production, Killy creates an epic, atmospheric track that is sure to be one of his biggest hits to date. Overall “No Sad No Bad” is more inspiring than braggadocious, proving that Killy isn’t at his peak, he has just begun.
The sixth track on the album “Doomsday” (and frankly, all of the tracks in between) continue Killy’s streak of producing incredibly high quality music. The production, handled by Y2K and Wondagurl come together to create a slower, more moody instrumental. The dreary sounds are matched by equally atmospheric vocals carried by reverb, singing about how Killy will “Come alive, on dooms, doomsday”. The track fits perfectly in Killy’s catalogue, with melodies crafted expertly for the beat, his cadence changes multiple times in the song, and his ad libs pushing the melodic structure forward. However, the track is unlike what listeners have come to expect from Killy, proving once again just how versatile he truly is without compromising his style.
Deadtalks and Live Your Last continue the high levels of quality expected from Killy, and the outro track “Fireflies” perfectly envelops the project as a whole. Killy sings “Lately, I been searchin’ for my purpose” and with Surrender Your Soul, he has found it. Creating some of the most unique music, without any filler tracks (the entire project is around 26 minutes long), while crafting his own signature sound unlike any other in the mainstream or underground scene. Killy wasn’t slacking last year when he released such a small collection of songs, he was perfecting his sound for this project. With Surrender Your Soul Killy has created an excellent project that is sure to bring him to the limelight of the rap industry. Just yesterday Killy began his Canada wide tour in Toronto. Stream Surrender Your Soul down below