Enyel C Deserves The Hype on Soulful New Single ‘Hola!’
11 August, 2020The big danger behind the hype surrounding urban’s current takeover of the mainstream is the ubiquity of autotune allied to tinny reggaeton and trap beats, often obscuring the identity of artists behind what has become a too-easily-copied identity. It sometimes means that I skip through tracks that I assume to be just another carbon copy Bad Bunny or J Balvin. However, when listening to Enyel C‘s latest single “Hola!” something hit me. Those omnipresent sonic markers are there, but there is also something natural about his rhymes and a soulfulness to his voice that passes through the processing.
Produced by himself, with a lo-fi hip-hop beat and delightful slowly-imploding synth lines, it’s a laidback track that could almost pass you by, except for Enyel C’s fluid, melodious vocals, yet repeated listens reveal details in the production and a real knack for songcraft. The video references both Windows Media Player and Zoom, immersing itself in early digital culture in much the same way as Bad Bunny has done in his videos, and with them both being from Puerto Rico it’s no surprise to find that El Conejo Malo is a fan, having posted about early track “Game Boyz”. That has given the press campaign a few extra inches, but in this case here’s an artist that deserves the hype, at least so far in his nascent career. A debut album or EP is set to be released later this year, which will no doubt confirm this.
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