Twitter: @Kiddieriot
San Juan’s very own Michael Torres gives us a freestyle that, beyond demonstrating his abilities as an MC, makes us ponder some of life’s bigger questions.
A thinkpiece where Mike—subverting Drake’s “Started from the bottom”—talks about dealing and hustling as a better alternative to the 9-to-5 life and its small incomes, the track ends with musings about death, the departure of loved ones, and those who stay behind on Earth trying to make sense of it all. The rhymes seem to be talking about making good with life while you have it (“good” being material possessions, in the case of Towers) but doubts linger after the shout outs are over. Mike’s talent relies on what he’s not saying through what he’s saying.
The lyrics pack quite an existential punch and they get delivered nicely in a package of melancholic keyboards and downbeats that recall ’90s East Coast rap. To emphasize some of the passages, Mike gets a chipmunk-like digital high-pitch version of his voice.
Who says hip-hop has no meaning nowadays?
Listen to the track here: