Girls Love Vampires Review

 

  

  A relatively unknown figure in the Florida rap scene until he was featured on the track “P.A.T.” off of Denzel Curry’s ZUU, PlayThatBoiZay has slowly begun to emerge as one of the more unique voices coming out of Carol City. Creatively merging South Florida lo-fi elements with his hair-raising delivery of shock and horror core rap, Zay has crafted a dark and brooding glimpse into the spine-chilling side of his persona. With minimal, repeating subject matter and some stale production, Zay is still able to paint a picture of evil deeds and turmoil that will make your skin crawl. We see a haunting young man give us a look into his life on this terrifying new EP Girls Love Vampires.

    Starting off the EP we enter into the track “Bolt,” with an instant dose of heavy, hard hitting bass. Not as loud and close to that signature over the top style we usually see, the bass is crafted really well as it growls menacingly in and out of the track, allowing us to really focus on the vocals that Zay delivers. The hook is simple yet effective. Saying “Imma run it up like my name Usain Bolt,” Zay gets straight to the point about his motives and continues to rap about his enemies and not giving a fuck. At one point having others refer to him as possibly “Satanic,” we start to see why he might be perceived as a so called vampire. Other elements such as the ominous, reverberating synthesized string sounds and the basic piano melody give this track an sinister personality.

    Tracks such as “Ya Kidding Me” and “Lestat” really highlight the mindset and petrifying production on some of these tracks. Constantly echoing the words “Ya kidding me,” Zay references girls trying to take advantage of him, while also being in awe of his Vampire-like, evil nature. They are unable to see he has little interest in them and Zay tells them he wants nothing to do with them. His delivery on this track is unmatched, almost seeming to be possessed as he shouts and flows over this track, appearing to growl like an unhinged beast. The bass is absolutely insane, starting to come in and out slowly in the beginning of the track, then hitting you all at once, making you feel like you could punch though a brick wall. The initial dirty, echoing sound with the 808s at the beginning of the track continues throughout, giving this track arguably the most unique sound on the record. the track “Lestat” could be considered his other persona, the vampire in him if you will. Saying “They call me Lestat, Le-who? Le-slat, Le-huh? Lestat!” Zay seems to be rapidly trying to convey this message, as emphasized by the most fast-paced beat on this record. An unnerving, high to low pitch synth sound is always present in this track, giving us that sense of urgency Zay is trying to convey. The bass is very loud on this track, but not as reverberating, which is a little different as compared the rest of the tracks, but it is fast when it comes in and out of the track, again signifying Zay’s need to convey his message.

    The track “Dark Side” is a spitting image of PlayThatBoiZay’s experience in Carol City. Zay raps about bullets flying by him and seeing the horrid things going on around him. Zay is however unfazed by most of this, as this song is meant for us to take a journey with him to HIS dark side. The hook is heavily auto tuned with dark, deep vocals such as “Have a reaper snatch your soul.” The familiar, abusive bass combined with some simple high-hats and a classic sounding drum snare makes this track arguably the best on the record. The track “Vampin in Miami” sees Zay detail his escapades in the dead night of his city. The production on this track is other worldly. Still using a gnarly 808 sound, the ending reverb has been cleaned up to not seem as dirty, and this allows us to really take in the ominous sounds he also throws in. There is a fantastic, clean hitting high-hat pattern that repeats, and some great adlibs at the beginning. This track really shines when we hear this wind-like noise floating through the background that has been super synthesized. This one sound gives off the most evil, unnerving feelings Zay has ever had in his music. The lyrics here are not as meaningful and harken back to things already mentioned in “Bolt” and “Dark Side.” Zay does however strings together some vocals near the end; “Biting like G R grrr, imma run it up imma do it in a blur, beat the pussy up imma make that shit purr!” These vocals trail off on the “R” sound, coming off as intensely frightening and delivered in such a satisfying style. Still a slightly disappointing track for how good it sounded sonically.

    Ending with the track “Insomnia,” we get something pretty interesting. Unlike the usual bass we have heard throughout this EP, here it is not as low pitched and menacing, but it echoes and reverbs longer than arguably any other bass sound on the EP. Coupled with some light piano keys, some really pretty high-hats and a steady, almost maraca-like sound, we get a really solid outro track. The subtly slow, nuanced notes and feather-soft piano keys throughout seem to convey a message of remorse and grief, but this feeling is wiped away as the track progresses. Zay’s lyrics here are probably his most heartfelt and honest, not seeming to convey as dark of a message on the beginning of the track. Zay raps “Jesus saved my life, think its suicide but think I love this life, walking with this sight, sipping dirty sprite, shit can go off!” the first thirty seconds are more somber than anything previous on this record, suddenly changing and getting more intense as the track progresses. Lyrics like the one mentioned previously show that Zay is aware of the dangers and sorrows of the life he leads, but to him it simply does not matter because that is what he knows. Later he says “This that Vamp life I ain’t living right.” This further ferments his awareness of his situation but he is really unable to do anything about it, because deep down he truly personifies this dark side of himself.

    Girls Love Vampires is a strong release from an artist that is able to paint a picture in your mind of the horrors around him with his menacing delivery and head banging production. Though marred by some thematic redundancies and a slightly repititious sound, PlayThatBoiZay is a name you should get familiar with now as he will be an artist you will likely be seeing a lot more of very soon.

 

Score: 7/10