Steve 'Flash' Juon“How far you really wanna take it?”
Probably not that far Kia. The young Atlanta rapper and his album “I Pray You Die” is easily the angriest thing I’ve listened to in a while. Let me stop for a minute and say it’s impressively angry. I have a hard time imagining anybody could get up the full throated screaming Kia does for thirty minutes straight, let alone have that much hate in their body without going fully nuclear and destroying everything around them. Obviously he recorded these songs in separate sessions instead of in one marathon stint in the studio, and it probably helps that none of his tracks are over three minutes long, but the second longest here is “Act Like You Ain’t Scared.”
“Say somebody say they want my soul, it’s up for grabs, come take it
He doin’ all that bluffin’, we push up, see what he on, strip a nigga naked”
Not only is Baby Kia showing some decidedly full grown violence (I guess Full Grown Kia wasn’t as catchy) his energy level is ridiculous. I don’t mean that he has the volume turned up on his voice. I don’t mean that his inflection is constantly angry. I mean that he spits out his words with the speed of a rapid fire machine gun. At times the instrumental is entirely secondary to Kia’s presentation. Whenever he feels the need to make a point on a song like “High Rise” he’s just going to keep on going come hell or high water. It’s like watching somebody crash out and be in total control at the same time. It’s mesmerizing.
“I Pray You Die” leaves me with mixed emotions. I’m on an infinite search for rappers who can impress me by saying or doing anything different than the millions of others who are in the game. In a world of monotony Baby Kia stands out BIG TIME. That said it wears you down after a full 30 minutes of hearing him throw vocal acid like the monsters from Aliens, melting the beats the mics he uses and your ears in one shot. I think I like it… in small doses. It’s so different that I enjoy it but I need an ice bath after finishing it just to let my mind and body recover. I’m also not sure he can keep up this level of rage without having a psychotic break.