Category: EP – 5 tracks, runtime – 12 min
Genre: Alternative rap
Release Date: 25.April.2025
Rating: ★★★★★★★★★☆ – 9.2/10
Behave yourself, Matthew David Nyanzi, you just can’t go around killin’ it this hard!
Some publicity background; it’s lowkey funny how Matt’s kept on referring to this as his debut “project”, somehow he steered clear of terms like “EP” & the like, save for official categorizations on streaming platforms, which are inevitable. I suppose it’s because he’s had a multi-track joint out before with, say, GrG. In any case, that’s inconsequential. So let’s get to what really counts: we’ll have at this in a clustered way, as is our preferred format lately—easing in with the opener, then the in-betweens, sealed by the closer.
Now about that opener!
Poetic how the first presence on the joint isn’t Matt’s, but from 250 rapper thedicekid. Even more emblematic of the whole affair is how this is the only track with a support roster. One of the members of the team had actually had a convo with Matt about this project late last year. He’d given us a hint that he was working on a fire jam with dicey. Glad to see it come together. For one, dicey scoops some well earned alpha aura on here with killer set ups & a heck of a hooky refrain; what with “like a bullet, bullet, bullet…” Extra highlight’s the sibling synergy between Matt & Kevin Mawejje, the latter suavely tagging along. The track hints at all that’s to come; a cheeky yet mature lyrical prowess, thematic coherence, and an overall frisky looseness that recenters fun as our main man’s rationale for ever doing this in the first place.
Then come the in-betweens:
First, our fav track on the joint just had to be “goodlyf”. Matt’s a nifty rapper, but there’s times when it kinda seems his production chops pack even more sauce. We abso-loved all the vocal & synth pannings on here, some really adventurous stuff. Also, dang, bro can lowkey croon good
. In another life, who knows, he could have been one of them dramatic R&B lovesick bros! Anyways, back to reality, we also loved how there’s so many sick quotable lines on here…like it’s criminal how he just casually stunted, “everybody must bathe, juice communal!” Thick sauce, anyday. “when u say”, the followup, is equally loose, delightfully so, but the joint that matches up this energy once more is “simmer down”. There’s a subtle tone shift in terms of lyrics. The entire joint chronicles a delight of the senses, typical young love/infatuation type stuff, there’s a vulnerable yearning about it all. But on the fourth track, he gives off a relationally laidback, self-assured poise in the wording, which matches up to the sound in a way that just had to be intentional. We have a non-musical feature coming up soon, where we’d like to discuss certain temperamental shifts in the pop culture of our day, & we’ll get into this typa thing.
And The Closer? Well…
Thing is, we’ve been here before. We gave our verdict of the piece some time back. But someone on the X streets summarized best, last year: “Alté-adjacent Matt’s the best kinda Matt.” There you have it. Track’s a bit more sing-y than bar-driven, but there’s a whimsical pleasure in the exploration. I mean, to be fair, the same can be said about a wholotta stuff going on throughout the whole runtime of the project. Apt that the last line on the last track’s to the effect of “I’m fully convinced.” Well, make no bones about it, bud, we too are “fully convinced”!
