Music Review // Neolithic "Sick (At All)"

 

Hitting play on this music video brings up a content warning for age restriction and after viewing it I can tell it is because a lot of this song is about drugs and alcohol use, which is not for the children.   Who I assume to be the rapper is in this video walking around, sometimes stumbling, and it just sets the tone for the lyrics which do appear on the screen as well.   This is important because sometimes the words come out fast so you don't always catch them the first time but you need to hear them all.

The best way to describe this song is as being R&B fused with hip hop.   But it feels like so much more than that, partly because of the content of the song.   It feels like someone is at a bar playing the piano on an open mic night when someone else steps up and tells this story about alcohol and drug use and love lost.   Less of a song with lyrics and more of a testimonial, an open letter to one person and the world.

Addiction is such a difficult thing to deal with and though this song mentions other drugs, it has always been strange to me that people could become addicted to alcohol and cigarettes and then take measures to go through and break that addiction and yet they're somehow legal.  It also goes with the idea that people might think an alcohol addiction isn't as bad as an addiction to an illegal drug because we're allowed to buy alcohol.  This video just helps to break that whole stigma where all addiction is valid and sometimes alcohol can sneak up on you.

One of the most fascinating aspects of this song and video is that after a verse it just ends.  I feel like it cuts off abruptly but I also feel like it does this for a very specific reason and that is to make a point.   That is to make the listener go "Whoa, it's over?", to make sure that you are paying attention.   And really you should be paying attention to this song because if you haven't struggled with addiction personally odds are that you know someone who has so within these lyrics you will find meaning.