By Juliana Coe-McNamara
Staff Writer
Pouya, a south Floridian self-made rapper, recently released his long-awaited album, “Five Five.” Pouya inspires many by coming from a poverty-stricken childhood to coming in 2nd place after Drake on Itunes top charts.
Pouya is very proud and public about his past years living in poverty. In an interview with HipHopDx Pouya states how he only started rapping when he was 17 to bring attention to the abundance of underground rappers and the poverty they face daily.
Pouya first became noticed in 2012 with his hit single, “Fuck It.” Since then, Pouya owes half of his popularity from collaborating with other self-established rappers such as Robb Bank$, $uicideboy$, and Fat Nick. Pouya eventually joined Bank$ label, Stunnas. Pouya is also a member of Buffet Boys, most associated with Fat Nick.
“Five Five” includes two previously released popular singles by Pouya, “Daddy Issues” and “Handshakes.” “Handshakes” alone has 1.46 million listens, and “Daddy Issues” shocks with an astonishing 4.22 million listens in just four months.
Pouya tends to incorporate an older, 90’s rap undertone in each of his songs. By having a 90’s hip-hop personality mixed with contemporary trap music, Pouya sets himself apart from the rest of the upcoming SoundCloud rappers. Including current hip-hop spirit with prior popular hip-hop beats proves how creative Pouya is as a rapper.
Another critical factor that individualizes Pouya as a musician is his beats. Pouya is well-known for collaborating with Mikey the Magician for the tunes on his tracks, and neither of them disappointed on the “Five Five” album. The bass-heavy tempo curated by Magician integrates perfectly with Pouya’s harmonious lyrics.
One of the most noticeable difference from this album to Pouya’s previous work is his improvement on having sloppy and careless verses mismatched with the chorus. The most evident proponent of this album that makes it so promising is how well Pouya’s meaningful lyricism flows with Mikey’s fun, refreshing beats.
Another enticing aspect of Five Five is how Pouya only collaborated with one other rapper on “Don’t Bang My Line,” which received just over 420k visits on the popular music streaming platform, SoundCloud. Besides maintaining Mikey the Magician for beats throughout the album, Pouya devised this album off his sheer musical talent.
Pouya managed to make “Five Five” an extremely versatile album, with songs ranging from emotional love songs to a confrontational, offensive tone accompanied by menacing tunes from Mikey. Using “Five Five” to bring attention to depression, Pouya speaks out on drug use and suicide. Such as in “Five Five,” one of the more popular singles on the album, Pouya states “Kids stumbling off the xannies now killin’ themselves so slowly.” Since many rappers only speak about drugs to praise them, Pouya took a distinct step by bringing attention to the negative aspects of drugs.
The only slight flaw with Five Five is how the beats can get a little aggressive. Not unusual for Pouya, a few of the songs are so loud and in-your-face that it gets overpowering. Thankfully, Pouya has enough musical knowledge not to overwhelm listeners and have an even number of chill to party songs.
To a large extent, Pouya confidently showcases his musical expertise and improves significantly on previous minor mistakes with his newest album “Five Five.” Pouya and Mikey, the Magician, composed a catchy, engaging album sure enough to impress Pouya’s millions of fans.
“Five Five” can be purchased on iTunes for $9.99, with each song being 0.99¢.
Leave a Reply