Hip-Hop resident Penomeco was a 2016 ‘One To Watch’ artist of mine for his 2016 song “For You.” The rapper is just starting to get a bit more recognition from a mainstream audience, but he’s been around the underground rap scene since 2014 as a part of the rap crew XVOI, later getting his big break from his feature on Zico‘s “Yes or No“ in 2015. The following year, Penomeco, DEAN, Crush, Zico, and MC Millic came together to form Fanxychild/FXCD.

Last week, Penomeco dropped his newest single album Film. Consisting of three songs, none of them are particularly adventurous but instead are trendy and in line with the trap and Hip-Hop-meets-Dancehall style of rap of the moment.

“SMT (So Many Times)” is, for me, a throw away. While it is catchy, “SMT” could have and has been done by plenty of other rappers, and didn’t stand out in any way.

Lead single “WTF (Went too Far)” is inspired by and about the city of Las Vegas, but rather than incorporating EDM, it has faint dancehall influences. The lyrics are littered with grammatically awkward English phrases and rather lazy descriptions of sin city.

My favourite track, “PNM (Plus And Minus),” has the most interesting melody of the bunch. It offers us a sound we haven’t quite heard from Penomeco yet, or from other artists. However pleasing it is as a club song, though, it still lacks depth.

Penomeco’s description of Film was that it was an album that would show his musical spectrum. That’s a hard task to do with only three songs, so it isn’t surprising that he missed the mark here. However, if Film accomplished anything, it’s that it showed that Penomeco is a great beat-maker with somewhat of a unique sound. Unfortunately, when compared to the music of other young rappers/singer, or even what the other members of his crew FXCD are releasing, this album disappears in the crowd.

Hopefully his follow up album, the deluxe version if Film , will give him more room to show off his musical capabilities.

3.8

Genre: Rap/Hip-Hop | Release Date: 03/01/17