Lewie - Heartless

If you have been following Tacoma Hip-Hop for the last decade plus then you have seen the transformation of Lil Ripp into Lewie. It has been nothing less than total and complete. We have watched an adolescent MC turn into an industry-ready, polished, young star on the rise. In this time of maturation Ripp has turned into a man and a father right before our eyes. He has put his crew Monee Klass Family into the forefront of the regional music-scene and Lewie then put the city on his back as he repped his fallen rap brother Glewie and went on national tours while nipping at the heels of national prominence. Lewie has been putting it down for a while now. He is one of the top HipHop artists out of Washington so it is almost surprising he has done all this without dropping a full length...until now.

Finally we have "Heartless", Lewie's debut album. Some artists put out lots of projects and the audience gets to hear their growth as they age and some artists wait until they are ready and then they drop their first album. Lewie and "Heartless" falls into the latter. Lewie has been grinding and growing for years before he dropped this project so the anticipation was very high. The cover of the album is a dreamy animated backdrop of Lewie standing in front of Tacoma. He is definitely shouting out Tacoma for all his national fans to see and that is cool.

The intro track "Treat You No Different" is a sing-songy, melodic, opener that shows Lewie has complete control of his cadences. The second song,"Cryin Heart", is a street heart-break record and Lewie definitely makes the record cry. It is an emotional song as Lewie sings directly to the mother of a lost brother exclaiming, "When I see yo momma cry that shit hurt my heart". Lewie's singing voice really comes across on this album. It might be a bit of a surprise for many listeners who are probably used to hearing him rap more but he has a syrupy voice and only adds auto-tune into the mix for excitement. He does not rely on it at all. All the songs on the album sound like they could be singles. They all have major radio appeal. The song "Doom" almost has a slow-jam, R&B feel to it. The beat has some pretty acoustic guitar strings and the drum-track is light.

"Heartless" is street-emo rap with a hustler's edge to it. It is very contemporary but still sticks to the G-code so new school and old school listeners will appreciate it alike. The album is a brisk 25 minute listen so enjoy it as we continue to watch Lewie grow into the Prince of the City.

Check out the album below and be sure to Follow Lewie as he continues to make a name for himself.

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