2Hi - White Lighter Bad Luck [ALBUM]

After a few years of loosies and EP’s, the dropping of his first full length project “2 Birds” last year, and being left with the bread crumb that was “Round and Round” back in August just for this moment here, local artist 2Hi continues the narrative of his rockstar lifestyle with the drop of his second Album, “White Lighter Bad Luck.”  Lyrically accompanied by the acclaimed NilexNile, otherwise known as Nile, Lake, and executive productions by No B, this melodic psychedelia is the melancholic voice of all who have found contentment with numbness, however, having subconscious undertones of self awareness and emotional longing; this all blends in to one truth while under great influence.. The intro track “Ghost” leads us straight to 2Hi’s inner conflict; there is an assertiveness here that may pass for aggression, or vice versa, in lyrics like “..And I'm in the back of the room high off the shrooms sitting, just think to myself, I am an artist who starvin’, no I can't bargain, I gotta double my wealth..lil bitch im cool, I don't need help, all of this work under my belt- I gotta do it all myself, I gotta do it all myself..” and the words “I gotta work on myself, I gotta work on myself..'' are heard faintly a lines afterwards, signaling the slip into 2Hi’s subconscious, his real thoughts, “..I'm an animal, I can't live with myself, only hurts if you take it out and you put my heart on the shelf, I just need your help…”

WLBL led with this tone for another 5 tracks and then about halfway into the album, we are temporarily given an energetic boost with “Switch Lanes”- how very telling of the motivation that many try to find after crash landing back on Earth into their own reality. This is made for the ‘fast and the furious’ (don't do it, drive safely), when you feel like a flexer, bump this!!….Annnnnd right back into the feels. Old habits die hard and some norms can't seem to be shaken in “Tattoos.” 2Hi comes a bit cleaner about his vices, even more so about the norms of his life experiences that trigger those vices; “ I got tattoos on my soul, I woke up lost on the road, I know that I'm on my own, mountains to me look like stones- I take these drugs to fly home...I seen it all just unfold, I seen this shit happen before…” Very easily, the methods taken on for masking continuous pain are cause for being misunderstood by those on the outside looking in because of one’s own miseducation on how to cope properly, leaving room to be branded (“tattooed”) as everything that we do not intend to really be. Tell me how YOU feel about “ White Lighter Bad Luck,” Milwaukee.

/Naomi-Re’a for CW