Album: Symba – 2 More Words
Premiered By HYPETRAK, The West Coast MC Releases Triumphant Sophomore Album Featuring Iamsu!, Young Gully, YMTK, And More
09.04.2015
Critical Praise:
“[Symba’s] bars are delivered with an undeniable honesty” – DJBooth
“[Symba] busts out some melodies himself, proving himself as a strong singer and hook-writer” – HotNewHipHop
The Album:
Bay Area rapper Symba has been showcasing a fiery collection of songs with his universal sound, balancing club-ready hooks with deft, incisive narratives. Today, he’s releasing his 13-track sophomore album, 2 More Words, which features Iamsu!, Young Gully, Marc E. Bassy, YMTK, and more, via HYPETRAK. The honest, street anthem-filled album holds production that leans from post-hyphy mob music heard on “How You Rockin“ to dramatic, key-swirling songs like “Welcome to Fame.”
“I feel in my career right now, I’m just figuring out who Symba is – I know who I am as a person but Symba is a lil’ different, and this project is me finding Symba,” he explains. “It’s now or never with what I’m doing, I gotta go hard for where I’m at now, mentally and physically or I never will… I’m proud of the way it sounds. It sounds like me, it doesn’t sound like any other artist, the beats, the mix, the content, some of the controversial shit I say. It’s just different, I’m glad that it’s not what nobody else is doing or talking about.” Watch a video introducing the project here.
2 More Words is Symba’s first project since his 2013 EP, Young Nate Nino, which channels Wesley Snipes in the film New Jack City. “Not following your usual Bay Area formula, Symba attacks the microphone with more aggressive tracks instead of the party or club lane.” ONSMASH explained in their coverage of the EP. The album also serves as the successor to his 2012 album II Words, which was the rapper’s official introduction to the industry. Symba has also released several videos which have garnered him additional coverage on WorldStarHipHop and The Examiner. After years of being in the independent rap game in the Bay Area, Symba is ready to forge ahead alone, relying on his own resources and skills on 2 More Words.
The artwork for 2 More Words features cassette tapes of Symba’s favorite albums, stored in an old Adidas shoebox.
2 More Words tracklisting:
1. (2 More Words) Intro
2. In Too Deep
3. How You Rockin’ feat Iamsu!
4. Wait a Minute feat YMTK
5. Ah Yeah feat Young Gully and Hwood Keefy
6. Stuck in My Ways feat Marc E. Bassy
7. Welcome To Fame
8. No Way Around It
9. Money Over Fame
10. AFMN feat Neglected Kings
11. Fall Back
12. Speaking From My Heart feat Big Klef
13. We Ready
Mixed by Aubrey “Big Juice” Delaine for JuiceBox Ent
Mastered by Mark B. Christensen
Listen to 2 More Words: https://soundcloud.com/therealsymba/sets/album
Check out the HYPETRAK premiere: http://hypetrak.com/2015/09/premiere-symba-2-more-words-album/
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Watch 2 More Words intro video here: https://youtu.be/hCHamqkR94Q
Please contact Michelle or Rory if interested in speaking with Symba.
Symba Background:
When he was 18 years old, Bay Area rapper Symba had the world in his back pocket. Not only was he a promising basketball player but he also was well on his way to a promising music career. He lived with his parents in a comfortable suburb in an impressive house with six cars in the garage. Everything, it seemed, was going his way. Then, the bottom caved in. One day, the police yanked him from class, telling him his father made bad investments with his clients’ money. Symba and his family went from having money to burn to losing everything and getting by day-by-day. “It humbled me,” he says. “Life hit me hard, and I had to learn backwards — I had to learn things people usually learn at the beginning of their life. But I was spoiled and I had everything. I didn’t care about people’s emotions, people’s feelings. It made me understand that everything that comes with money — it really ain’t shit.”
Symba poured all of that learning into 2 More Words, a fiery collection of songs that balances club-ready hooks with deft, incisive narratives. He flips styles constantly, going from grinding, insistent rapping to lithe melodic singing. On “In Too Deep,” he begins by pouncing on the beat before gliding into a gorgeous, minor-key chorus. This is Symba’s M.O.: balancing, tough, punching verses with gliding, hook-laden choruses. Above all, it is designed to inspire people going through similar struggles not to give up hope and not to abandon their dreams. “What I want people to realize is that they should never let someone tell them they can’t do something,” he says. “Never put yourself down because of your current state of life. Never let your future go. In the life we live today, it’s damn near impossible to believe in yourself. But no matter what’s hitting you in life, never lose sight of the bigger picture. Because that’s what you’re living for at the end of the day.” That’s the message that turns up on 2 More Words time and again: that no struggle is too great to fight through, and that belief and determination can triumph over any odds.
Links:
official site | twitter | instagram | soundcloud
2 More Words: https://soundcloud.com/therealsymba/sets/album
“Stuck In My Ways”: https://soundcloud.com/therealsymba/stuck-in-my-ways-feat-marc-e-bassy
“How You Rockin”: https://soundcloud.com/therealsymba/how-you-rockin-ft-iamsu
“Classic Man” Freestyle: https://soundcloud.com/therealsymba/classic-man-freestyle
“R.I.C.O.” Freestyle: https://soundcloud.com/therealsymba/rico-freestyle