Music Review // Sean X "Xxx"

https://open.spotify.com/album/2fGRx2qEQjsbw7MFPV915o

First off, I do not recommend doing a Google search for this artist and song title as the results will come back how you might anticipate.   I'd just use the Spotify link above and do searches through social media but not a search engine.  The song "Xxx" also sings a bit about the "life of a lonely pirate" and so it's kind of funny in the sense that when you think about using search engines and what the results could be, but then also looking up a certain website like Pirate Bay and how the two can be connected.  I feel like this song is more about an internet pirate than one in the actual ocean, but that's just how I relate to it.

The sounds of Sean X are R&B fused with pop.  There are synths and beats but it doesn't really get to that point of hip hop.   This isn't a sound which you actually hear a lot of these days- it was more popular in the 1990's with Boyz II Men and Bell Biv DeVoe- and when you do hear it in a modern sense I feel like there would be a lot of autotune.  Sean X just sings this song without autotune and that in itself is a rarity which should be commended.  I listened to a lot of music which sounded like this in the 1980's and 1990's even something like Heavy D and it just feels like a more modern take on it.

Lyrically I really enjoy this whole piece near the end that says:

Times will come when people  watch your steps

Hoping you slip up

Make you victim

Hoping that you go back to the place you were sent from

Nobodys perfect

One thing I feel like has come up more in 2021 (and part of it might be that the pandemic forced everyone inside in 2020) is this idea of cancel culture.  I don't disagree with it or want to make a debate about it, but the idea that a person can make a mistake and then they're gone forever is kind of odd since we're all humans, we all make mistakes and it's what you do afterwards- at least to me- that matters most.  But I feel like we do live under that microscope in 2021 where if we slip up and do something someone doesn't agree with or say something which is taken out of context then it's bye-bye forever and that doesn't feel fair if people are willing to learn and grow.

The last time I felt this way about an artist it was 2Pac.  I remember listening to his cassettes and thinking about how it was rap music but there was a purpose to it, you know, it made you think.  And when I think now about the artists I hear coming through with Sean X I feel like a lot of their songs were about love, which is fine, but it doesn't feel like we've had enough of what I would call socially conscience R&B and that's what I feel like Sean X is doing here.  Play this one loud, have fun with it, get up and dance but don't just sing along the words without truly embracing them.