SiR comes from a musical household. He grew up singing in church in his hometown of Inglewood, California. His mom sang background vocals for Chaka Khan and Michael Jackson, and his older brother is the Grammy-nominated rapper D Smoke. With these credentials, it might appear that SiR’s path to stardom — dropping an unbiased album, signing to TDE, incomes a Grammy nomination — was preordained. However his rise to the highest was something however easy and left him deeply scarred, as HEAVY, his new album and first launch in 5 years, makes abundantly clear.
The album begins with SiR feeling “the burden of the world” on his shoulders, earlier than reflecting on his numbing life-style that led to a downward spiral of dependancy culminating in a number of rehab stints in recent times: “World get on my nerves, man, this shIt simply don’t excite me,” he laments on the catchy second observe, “IGNORANT,” that includes Ty Dolla $ign.
SiR’s earlier albums straddle the road between conventional love songs within the vein of neo-soul greats like Maxwell and D’Angelo and solipsistic, poisonous R&B. HEAVY digs deeper and exhumes SiR’s scars — some that may totally heal and others that by no means will. He faces the results of his errors on the Isaiah Rashad-assisted “KARMA,” bathes in his ache on the standout title observe, and dons a villain masks on the hard-nosed “NO EVIL,” a nihilistic plea for assist: “No level in tellin’ the reality if you’re bulletproof/And no person cares to imagine you,” he sings in a Prince-like wail.
SiR’s newfound vulnerability peaks on “ONLY HUMAN,” a self-produced observe with an acapella again half the place he swoops down with angelic vocals and succinctly articulates the album’s thesis: “Riskin’ all of it for a floating, fleeting feeling … can’t keep away from the alternatives I’ve made.”
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TDE’s SiR Particulars Habit Struggles Throughout Making Of New Album ‘Heavy’
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The sonics on HEAVY are additionally a departure from SiR’s final two albums, which favor atmospheric neo-soul. Right here, he opts as a substitute for extra rapid beats. His vocals — at turns buttery easy and coarse — ooze over programmed drums and trendy sounding entice&B. The album’s sound mirrors SiR’s shifting moods: frantic drums crash towards light keys and remorseful background coos.
Although the album options SiR’s rawest and most private songwriting thus far, some stumble by his at-times clumsy pen. Take the out-of-place “SIX WHOLE DAYS,” the place SiR sings clichés like, “Blinded by my very own silly methods” or the generic sounding radio seize “YOU” and its stuck-in-the-mid-2000s hook: “We gon’ make a tune tonight/ It’s about you.” The counterpoint is the album spotlight “RICKY’S SONG,” the place SiR dispenses life knowledge to his 20-year-old nephew with specificity and heartfelt supply.
On the album’s closing observe, “BRIGHTER,” SiR trudges by means of the mud and discover consolation in his ache: “There’s nothin’ extra amazin’ than when gentle begins breakin’ by means of,” he sings with a hard-earned smile. Total, HEAVY permits the TDE crooner to get tremendous susceptible and go head-to-head along with his previous demons.
RELEASE DATE: March 22, 2024
RECORD LABEL: Prime Dawg Leisure
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