Rapper Lil Mosey has just turned seventeen and is very much a child of his time. He mumbles as Lil Yachty (the line of text ”wanna ride around with my clique, baby?” pronounced ”wa wa wa wa wa wa click bay”), he uses the same adlibs as Migos and his melodies smells strongly of Post Malone.
It is just the melodies that are in focus in Lil Moseys rap – the lyrics are just a series of lines of text that fit in the rhythmic flow. It is reminiscent of how ABBA wrote their songs: Benny Andersson’s stately melodies came first, then poured Björn Ulvaeus in kärlekslyrik that suited the tune.
Commercial american hip-hop today relate to the lyrical clichés in the same way as commercial pop songs made around 1960. The difference is the topic of the lyrics: then it was romantic love that was, now it is materialistic wealth, to make a class trip upwards, to avoid relationships that threaten to become troublesome, and to identify friends and enemies.
now as then: it is the sound and the melodies that make a song stand out, the text is secondary.
Lil Moseys ”Burberry headband”, from the album ”Northsbest” which was released last fall, uses the same legendary chord progression heard in the majority of all hit singles in the late 1950s. His beats, usually produced by Royce, the David, consists only of the clear chords and catchy rhythms – a few melody lines are not needed, for Lil Moseys rap is enough melodious in itself.
Like many other young american rapper, run the Lil Mosey playback throughout the concert. He is holding a microphone and moving her lips to his own songs that he recorded a music video. There he uses his voice to is to ask the audience – who is very young, the age limit for the concert is thirteen years old and the average age is not much over – do moshpits, dancing and freaking out.
he plays some rowdy XXXTentacion-hits to create the right mood.
But Lil Mosey are not in decadence. When people are well down the loss and a mug with beer flying in the air splash a little beer on the artist up on the stage, making him much offended. He is threatening to end the concert if it happens again. A big guard sit next to the stage in the next song, so that nobody should dare any mischief.
Lil Mosey stands out as a brat who wants to have a party but not so relaxed that he wants to give the impression of. As a live artist he is nowhere near as cosy as on the disc.
Read more music reviews by Nicholas Ringskog Ferrada-Noli, for example, how grimestjärnan Skepta has become the mainstream again.
