KILLY: Surrender Your Soul

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Typically, I try to stick with Bay Area local groups to do profiles on, trying to find local talents that might fly under the radar with all the music coming out of Atlanta, LA, and the East Coast. However, there's underrated music everywhere and lately, I've found an up and coming artist who I feel I really need to talk about.

Toronto's got some sleeping giants...

Canadian rapper KILLY is among them, as he stirs from his slumber to release Surrender Your Soul, the moody and electrifying debut album from the artist who created Killamonjaro and Distance.



The 20 year old musician began releasing tracks in 2016 to Soundcloud and YouTube, raising 15 million views for his breakout single Killamonjaro, in February of last year. Since then he's raised a modest following and recognition among rap circles for his ambient, emo-rap tone.



Killy's style uses heavy voice modulators, accompany guitar and a rich depth of orchestral elements. The musician cited Travis Scott as being one of his major inspirations, apparent in the vocal techniques he uses and the dark, symphonic mood their music shares.

Released on March 6th, 2018, Surrender Your Soul is a brief collection of 10 songs clocking in at 24 minutes. Short but sweet, the lineup includes former hit singles but also great new tracks produced by Y2K like No Sad No Bad, Doomsday, and Pray for Me. Ominous Doomsday is about starting a new life and saying goodbye to the past while No Sad No Bad is about moving to LA, where everything is just as glamorous as the rapper had hoped it'd be.

One of the interesting things about Killy's approach to distributing music is his minimal use of self promotion. In the past, there have been quite a few Soundcloud rappers to rise to enormous success, and Killy's confident enough in his rising following that he avoids signing to labels or featuring for big rappers.



With Surrender Your Soul, a sleeping giant awakens.

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