Straight out of New York City, T-Bruin’s distinct east coast sound can be deciphered almost immediately when the beat of SUN GAZING starts to unfold onto your headphones. The Bronx based MC utilises soulful samples, smooth flows, and an old school influence to take you back to hip-hop’s golden age. Kickstarting the record off with SUN GAZING, you’re greeted with a rather high energy and up tempo flow alongside a soul sample that elevates the entire experience.
When the song switches to MY UNIVERSE, the record takes the tempo down a couple of notches. Now a lot more mellow and laidback, T-Bruin is heard rapping over a much more atmospheric and spacey beat. The production feels like something to kick back to, something to spark a blunt off on, and a tune to simply close your eyes and lie back. But T-Bruin is on his lyrical best here, delivering bar after bar about his environment. At the songs midsection, he uses a pitch perfect beat switch to suddenly turn the record on its head. His flow starts to kick into second gear, suddenly rapidly delivering exceptionally rapid fire bars. It feels like an escape, but also an indictment.
TUG OF WAR has a brilliant feature that only adds to the soulfulness of the performance. 10,00 HOURS feels like the most intimate of the bunch, an incredibly honest and vulnerable outpouring of T-Bruin’s own story. Practice and hard work is all that matters.
A rap record that sees the MC really bringing not just his own personal story to life, but also utilising a classical sound that makes you harken back to the genre’s golden age.