VIKKI SOTA


There’s a lot of buzz in the underground world of hip-hop about the emerging hybrid artists who don’t have time for the labels their forerunners spent the better part of a generation cultivating, and among those I’ve been listening to lately, Vikki Sota is probably the most interesting. His upcoming EP, Genesis, is already getting into a lot of discussions and it’s yet to land on record store shelves, mostly because of the hype that a pair of singles in “Run up my Bands” and “Swimming” has been winning this talented young artist. Sota’s no joke in the studio, and if this is just an intro to his career, you’ve got to wonder just how high in the sky he’s planning on reaching with this work.
 
@VikkiSota 

The music video for Sota’s “Run up my Bands” was what first got my attention with this artist, and it showcases enough swagger to make just about anyone a believer in the player’s brand. He’s got a confidence that normally comes with playing a hundred different shows exclusively, and for being as underground and off the radar of mainstream audiences as he is at the moment, he doesn’t sound like someone desperate to make a big splash on either side of the dial. 

There’s something special about a man who lacks urgency in alternative music, and this could be what makes the music he’s been recording sound both cryptic and poetically in-depth beyond what the simplistic lyrics he writes might initially suggest. Instrumentally speaking, I’m hoping to hear a bold look in Genesis as it was first advertised in “Swimming” earlier this year rather than something a step back from what Vikki Sota has already been putting out. 

There’s an atmospheric element to his work that is just begging to get some more time in the spotlight, and while I don’t typically go for the more surreal aspects of the new trap movement, this is one artist who might be able to make it work for him in a way that others have only hoped to achieve in their own discographies. Thoughtfulness is key for composers, as is rejecting the blasé trends that have become predictable pillars of inconsistency for the likes of this artist’s closest peers in and outside of his local scene. 


I’m only one critic speaking for myself here, but I think that the hype surrounding Vikki Sota isn’t just justifiable - it’s a little understated in comparison to what he probably deserves as a creative clearly on his way out of the underground and into the primetime lights. There aren’t a lot of negatives to his sound or the style he’s been surviving with thus far; honestly, I think he’s been on the right path since he first stepped into the game, and other than picking up the pace and dropping a proper album in the near future, there’s nothing I would tell him to do differently as we prepare to see what kind of musical magic and poetic moxie Genesis has in store for the world.

Cleopatra Patel

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