Vision the Kid & Tru

You’ve probably not heard much about Vision the Kid & Tru but in their neck of the woods, they’re a pretty big deal. Already signed to a minor independent label and boasting CMJ Hip-Hop charting debut album, the Minnesotan duo’s career is on an electronically-charged upward trajectory as further evidenced by their success with a few singles featuring on various MTV outlets. The Midwest’s answer to Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Vision the Kid & Tru release their second full length album ‘Somewhere in a Dark City’ and they’re already radiating the professionalism of seasoned artists at the top of their game.

Taking advantage of the availability and universality of electronic music to create phase-laden, wave-washed instrumentals that sound both complexly comprised yet completely bearable to those who maybe don’t like hip-hop’s typically more fearsome anatomy. Proceedings rely so heavily on electronic sounds that the album is practically electro. Utilising a hefty amount of modular synthesis, ‘Somewhere In A Dark City’ experiments with sound design, structure and timing but is also not adverse to more acoustic forays on the rare occasion like with the more pop-centric ‘Lucky You’ and ‘Red Eye’.

‘Somewhere In A Dark City’ unleashes contemporary subjects as part of the artists’ personal experiences that are tinged with bleak mores. Whether it’s to do with vice, love or urban decay, Vision the Kid & Tru passionately decant a world-weary anthology of the unforgiving inner city streets of Minneapolis.

Notably, Vision the Kid & Tru enlist the help of some of their artist friends to lend the album the same eclectic variety their musicianship has. Many independent rappers have been culpable of promoting an exclusivity that prevents themselves from branching out to new audiences – not a criticism that you can lay here as the album flitters accordantly between vocal melody and prose as well as the conceited machismo of dissident old school emceeing.

The greatest compliment I can pay the man voted Best Local Rapper in a poll by vita.mn and his decorated producer buddy is that, no matter how heady the subject matter becomes, this energetic album brings out the dancer in you as well as the thinker. Entertaining and provocative throughout, ‘Somewhere in a Dark City’ is a neon-lit beacon for the Midwestern hip-hop scene.