With a few minute left in BLACK’!ANTIQUE, Pink Siifu unfurls the ethical of his dense parable by means of the voice of the Dungeon Household’s Huge Rube. “After we had been created, there was no mildew/Simply unique model, with unique soul,” Rube says, earlier than launching right into a measured diatribe in regards to the ancestral sources and resounding energy of Black creativity. It’s the model of beautiful closing tableau Siifu has turn into adept at crafting—after lulling you right into a daze along with his meandering, creaky vocals towards idyllic guitar and the sound of operating water, he snaps the eye again. In a flash, Rube’s piercing baritone turns into the conduit for Siifu’s declaration: “My individuals are unique and divinely distinctive,” he says, taking a prophetic tone for the album’s final breath. “And our worth will hold rising, like some Black antiques.”
BLACK’!ANTIQUE is the fourth studio album from Siifu, and his first solo launch since 2021’s Gumbo. Throughout the plush, laid-back melodies on his 2023 collaborations Leather-based Blvd. (with Ahwlee) and It’s Too Quiet..’!! (with Turich Benjy) and the reverse-engineered neo-soul, funk, and punk on the stellar Gumbo and 2020’s Negro, the Alabama-born artist has morphed his rapping to marry his inventive impulses with influences just like the Dungeon Household, Solar Ra, and Sly and the Household Stone. BLACK’!ANTIQUE continues to meet the prophecy of remaining “divinely distinctive”: That is Siifu at his boldest, oscillating from abrasive to soothing on a whim. Although some concepts are a bit tough across the edges, his imaginative and prescient is remarkably clear as he unwinds over the splendor of an enormous manufacturing panorama.
Following within the community-built vein of Gumbo, BLACK’!ANTIQUE feels akin to a rambunctious household affair with frequent Siifu collaborators together with artists Benjy, Liv.e, and V.C.R, and producers Roper Williams and HiTech. The 33-year-old rapper’s chameleonic means to contort his croons and mutters to the encircling ambiance helps his visitors really feel snug—generally to the detriment of the report’s stability. There’s an unevenness to the album’s early stretch: Siifu’s livid shrieks are practically overpowered by blaring, Inception-esque drones on the Williams-produced opener (“Black’!Vintage”), and the mixture of noise rap and ambient textures on “Alive and Direct’!” by no means appears to get off the bottom. These aren’t stylistic departures for Siifu, however when held up towards the groove he settles into all through the remainder of BLACK’!ANTIQUE, the additional entropy registers as misplaced.
