Album Review: Kinnecom – Motion Sickness

The New York City transplant Kinnecom has come a long way since his post-hardcore days with Wealth in Water and Motivational/Motiv. Since signing with Imminence Records, he has shifted gears towards a stylized RnB/Alternative Hip Hop sound with ambient electronics and smooth vocals. This sound is further broken up with dynamic rapping throughout multiple tracks. His debut album, Virtual Gravity (2014) was the beginning of his work with producer, Nick Scott (Asking Alexandria, Emmure, and Southpaw, to name a few). While the duo collaborated on two tracks this time through, Motion Sickness is for the most part, self produced and continues the feel of Virtual Gravity with 11 brand new tracks.

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Genre: Alternative Hip Hop
Label: Imminence Records
Release: October 30, 2015
Connect: Facebook | Twitter
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Though stylistically similar, Motion Sickness is leaps and bounds ahead of his previous work in terms of lyrics and overall musical quality. The reason for this sudden change can be summed up in one word: emotion. Kinnecom’s first album, though full of catchy raps over intricate beats, did not carry the same emotion as Motion Sickness. As you listen to tracks such as “Oh My God, Shut The F— Up” and “I Fell in Love with Her Rain,” you can envision the author of the lyrics on the floor of a white-washed room under a single dim lamp pouring his very being and life out onto a page.

Kinnecom – “Oh My God, Shut The Fuck Up”

BUY Bandcamp: http://hyperurl.co/vcy7jk Kinnecom: https://www.facebook.com/Kinnecom https://twitter.com/Kinnecom http://instagram.com/KinnecomOfficial http://kinnecom.tumblr.com/ Imminence Records …

As an artist, Kinnecom has shown great growth while better developing his voice for singing and relying less upon his rapping ability.The rap verses laid over the smooth tracks compliment the singing well; however, his voice and singing ability undoubtedly carry the album. In turn, this leads to and shows the major drawback of the album; the production. There are a lot of vocal effects during various tracks that did not seem to add anything to the overall feel. While the album is mostly self produced, the deep bass hits pounding along many of the tracks somewhat clash and provide a disruption to the seemingly soft feel of the albums theme. It’s not a rushed sound and the music comes through clearly, it just seems that he wanted the music to go one direction while the production went another.

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“Though stylistically similar, Motion Sickness is leaps and bounds ahead of his previous work in terms of lyrics and overall musical quality”

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The individual tracks themselves each have their own sound to them both lyrically and musically. From the intro of the title track, “Motion Sickness”, the stage is set for the album by telling the listener the situation and feelings that are going to be the foundation driving the album lyrically. The next several tracks feature a mixture of singing and rapping which compliment each other well. Most notably, “And We Drove” features Kinnecom’s rapping skills over a soothing track that underscores the vivid story told. “Colorado Nights” picks up with rapping and vocals that display one of his best lyrical qualities: Whether rapping or singing through a narrative, he is meticulous about giving enough detail that you can picture exactly what he talking about and feel his emotional intensity. After singing through “Is That Too Much?”, the album finishes with “The Band Begins to Play” and the album fades out with a single sustained guitar note. As I finished the album, one thing became noticeably apparent; the growth from the start of what Kinnecom was to what he is now and that gives me an itch of excitement for whatever he releases next.