Earlier this month I stumbled upon a rappers Instagram page, his name was SoloChulo. He was an African rapper that was dripping in Gucci scarves, Designer jeans, and Bape shoes. Since he's African-Australian I assumed he was from Melbourne but after sussing out his Instagram I realized he was from my home city of Sydney, specifically Blacktown. I thought it was cool because Sydney doesn't really have any African rappers in its scene. The first thing I did after finding Solo Chulo's Instagram page was to hop on to youtube and see if the man could make good music, but annoyingly he didn't have a single clip up on youtube, until two weeks ago. The new song was called Flexin On Purpose and the visuals and sound were clearly influenced by American rappers, although it did have a unique West Sydney flare. One of the best developments in the last few years in Australian rap has been a true embrace of Australianess in the music and vibe of our artists. Solo Chulo definitely isn't going against this trend, the video has distinctly Australian elements. From the dice game with yellow notes or the cheeky African-Australian twang in the accent, I think Solochulo does a good job at fusing his inspirations with his realities.
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| Solo Chulo |
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| OhGeesy ($horeline Mafia) |
The first thing I noticed about Solo Chulo was his monotone voice. That isn't a criticism, actually, it's one of Chulo's best features, the monotone voice clearly added to the whole atmosphere of the song and it gives the whole vibe of the track a colder feeling. I couldn't help but think that Solo Chulo has a very similar voice to OhGeesy from Shoreline Mafia, both have an atmospheric voice that gives a song character. It's clear the Chulo knows what he's doing, the way he rides the beat and switches up the flow like 3 times on the songs shows he's either talented, been doing this for a minute or both. The track has some of the most colourful, kooky adlibs I've ever heard in a Sydney track, those adlibs partnered with a selection of gritty gunshot sounds makes for a really fun song. Without a doubt what makes this song stand out is the hook, it's by far the most melodic part of the song and it got stuck in my head pretty quick, it goes so well with the repetitive piano in the background. Something esle that I think went really well together was the actual song itself and the music video. It wasn't too over the top, just like the song. It's your classic west Sydney video with the crew in the background; running amuck ofcoarse. There was clearly some narrative in the video, with scenes of Chulo brandishing a gun and later running down on someone. The visuals of the actual story and the visuals of Chulo just rapping with his crew are weaved within each other which keeps the clip exciting. All in all I'd give Flexin On Purpose a 7.5/10, i was pleasantly surprised to be impressed by a rapper id never heard of and I look forward to his next release, if i could give one critique it would probably be to try rap with less of an American accent but Chulo's career is very young and i can see him making moves in 2020.
FOLLOW SOLOCHULO ON INSTAGRAM @solochuloo
