Clawing out of the abysmal silence with growling bass tones and a seething synthetic beat that will be pushed to the very brink of destruction, Swigga Geovanni’s “DMLY (Daddy Mi Love You)” wastes no time in wrapping around us as tightly as possible in an effort to force all of its physicality and boisterous brawn upon us in one fell swoop. There’s nothing getting between Geovanni and his goal in this track, and I would even go as far as to say that for this being his first official release, it sounds much more like the work of a skilled veteran with years of studio experience. He slashes through the bands of rhythm and harmony with an angst-ridden lyrical wit that is startlingly refreshing, wholly embracive of experimental themes and quite charming when paired with the moderate funk of the nearby instrumental melody. “DMLY (Daddy Mi Love You)” is an unusually simple song that contains more than one facet of eclecticism in action, but beyond its stately arrangement and one of a kind stylization lies a familiarity that makes it an instant hit single this fall.
This hook is quite reminiscent of a 213-style melodicism best embodied in the works of Warren G, but the hook here is undeniably as progressive as they come. There’s a strange tethering between the surreal hip-hop sounds of 2019 and the classic bass-heavy funk of the early 90’s L.A. underground, and yet it’s not the main focus of our attention in “DMLY” – that title belongs to the interplay between the low-end textures and the thrusting percussion.
Their chemistry makes the entire backend of the song sound and feel like something off of a Grand Theft Auto soundtrack, only sans the gluttonous lyrical content. There’s a lot of tangible emotions being exchanged in the verses that Geovanni is singing and rapping to us, and even at his most indulgent, that emotionality never completely departs from our view. He’s the real article, and if that’s what he was trying to inform all of us, critics and fans of smart hip-hop alike, with the release of this track, then to say that he did a good job would be a rather grand understatement indeed.
It’s a sensuous debut that is admittedly a little rough around the edges (in a good way), and from where I sit I would deem Swigga Geovanni’s “DMLY (Daddy Mi Love You)” one of the best songs of its kind to make the headlines this September. “DMLY (Daddy Mi Love You)” takes elements of a conflicted tonality and boldly fuses them together, and instead of sounding like an overthought melting pot of melody, melancholic retrospection and mighty hip-hop basslines, it’s postmodern, focused and really inspiring when you isolate its most important components from each other. It’s exactly what was missing from the indie rap spectrum this month, and with any luck it won’t be the only track that we hear from Geovanni before the year is over. In this business you have to strike while the iron is hot, and his is rivalling the core temperature of the sun in this moment.
Garth Thomas