TheDropout Spectrum is living a comic book-like life in the music video for his new song “Take Off,” but while the look of the video is certainly colorful and campy, the content that inspired it is driven more by muscle than wit. Where some have been making the bass more of a point of expression than the percussion or even a verse would be in recent hip-hop content hitting record store shelves, TheDropout Spectrum is looking to craft something a little more old school in “Take Off,” putting his stock in lyrical weight over the flashy framework of the mix.
The swagger this player is rocking doesn’t stop with his output at the microphone; I actually think it starts with his delivery of the verses and stops with his command over the instrumental beat. There isn’t a move made by the percussion that doesn’t feel supremely controlled by TheDropout Spectrum’s execution, and I don’t know if the chills factor this inherently spikes would be nearly as high were a different rapper at the center of the performance here. He’s putting his own stamp on this single and making it known to the audience that his is a one-of-a-kind brand.
In the music video for “Take Off,” TheDropout Spectrum’s indie personality becomes the primary focus for the audience, and I love the direction this leads us in. He could have fronted with a lot of additional props like money or cars here, but he’s taking a more cerebral approach to the imagery and thus looking a lot more humble in his presentation than he potentially would have. It’s worth considering given the indulgence his contemporaries embrace, especially since it hasn’t worked out or the vast majority of players who have steered away from efficient songcraft in hip-hop lately.
Watch the video for “Take Off” below
There isn’t a moment in “Take Off” where it feels like TheDropout Spectrum’s vocal wants to slow down; it’s high-energy from start to finish, and arguably an agent of evocation just based on intensity, let alone the lyrical content it’s giving us. He seems to benefit more from the pressure in this arrangement than he probably would something slower or even more melodic than what we’re hearing in this single, which isn’t to say he lacks versatility. This rapper is on the harder side of the genre, and to be fair we could use more artists like him in the game right now.
Hip-hop’s finest young performers are coming out of independent channels almost exclusively in 2022, and among them, I think TheDropout Spectrum is one that critics and fans need to be spending a lot more time examining. He’s got some lofty ambitions that start to flesh themselves out in “Take Off,” and although I haven’t been listening to his music long enough to really determine how experimental an attitude he’s got when it comes to composing, there’s enough in this single to tell me he’s just getting started in terms of his greater concept. I’ll be looking forward to more, and I think you will be, too.
