I’m pleased to announce our very first official album review! Today, we have an multi-talented artist from Washington D.C. that goes by the name of Lil Dream. Last month on 1.17.20, he released his brand new album titled “Sink or Swipe”, which is now available in-stores and all on popular streaming platforms everywhere.
Now before we get into this review, I have to make an embarrassing disclaimer. To be completely honest, I’ve been sleeping on way too many artists coming out of the DMV over this last decade. I know, I know, I’ve been living under a rock (I live in Wyoming, what do you expect?). I’m familiar with the obvious legends like Oddisee, Wax, and Logic, but I’ve yet to become fully immersed with this new generation of emcees making waves in D.C. and the surrounding areas, that is until today.
We recently had the pleasure of being introduced to one artist in particular who goes by the name Lil Dream. Dream is also a producer & engineer hybrid that has worked with the likes of grammy-nominated artist GoldLink among countless others. I finally had the opportunity to check out his latest project “Sink Or Swipe” and hear an example of what this new generation of DMV emcees are bringing to the table. Safe to say, I was not disappointed.
“Sink Or Swipe” (cleverly abbreviated as “S.O.S.") runs a sweet 12-tracks deep and clocks in at a grand total of 33 minutes. While there’s enough autotune and snare rolls on this record to appeal to any fan of modern rap and trap music, it also has a unique lo-fi essence to it that makes Dream stand out amongst the one-too-many similar styles in the genre. This record is very nuanced in the way that it delivers it’s true glory and intention, but behind the guise of it’s trap-pop colored surface, Dream has something to say with this project and you might have to digest this record front-to-back a couple of times in order to figure out exactly what that might be. I won’t spoiler the experience for you but i’ll leave you with this: In an era where artists are forced to either swim and evolve or fall off and drown, how do we ultimately handle those critical decisions needed to keep the raft afloat? Does it come down to survival of the fittest? Perhaps... but maybe not.
Lil Dream is anything but the implications of his name, his dreams are definitely not small and his sound is large as hell. Having a humble-yet-cocky approach to his persona makes you curious and almost a little worried for what exactly this artist has up his sleeve for the incoming future. One thing is for certain - it’s definitely going to be more than just a “lil”! *cue 90’s sitcom laugh track*
“Sink Or Swipe” by Lil Dream is now available in-stores everywhere. Find it here: http://smarturl.it/SinkOrSwipe
Follow Lil Dream on social media & online:
Instagram / Twitter / Soundcloud / Spotify