M’siyah enters the light with “Drown,” a bold new offering that doesn’t just mess around with feeling but instead hurls it out, makes it gasp for air, and then won’t allow it to go away. “Drown” makes it clear from the outset that this isn’t to be a listen of smooth production and radio-friendly ease. It’s about the messy, human parts of feeling, jealousy, insecurity, and the sudden, terrifying sense of losing control.

In “Drown” M’siyah wields openness as a weapon. Instead of retreating behind the shiny bars of polished hooks, the artist dives straight into the delivery, though aggressive and urgent, finding someone speaking through unfiltered, brutally honest. It’s one of those recordings that doesn’t even seem to be a song so much as a confession, only the confessor is too proud to clean it up.


The beat isn’t there to only support the lyrics but to give them force, so that the listener can get sucked up with M’siyah into a circling headspace. The atmosphere is dark, tense and enveloping, as if you are walking through a storm without getting wet.


“Drown” isn’t about winning or even signaling that you want to be cool, but simply about wanting to be honest in ways that would make most artists uncomfortable. This is hip hop deconstructed to its true elements, mood, perspective, and unadulterated truth. If it’s a track that refuses to get comfortable, “Drown” is the kind of record that doesn’t just cultivate awareness as much as sensation.