On his highly anticipated, come-back project—Runtown fails to make a strong statement. The effort is there but the execution is lacking.
Believe it or not, there was a time Runtown was one of the biggest artists in the country and was at the forefront of music discourse and relevance. Propelled by the success of his smash hit, Mad Over You in 2017—the moment was quite shortlived, but he had already enjoyed an illustrious career that spanned about seven years.
That’s why he could come out of hiding every few years, announce a new project and still get people excited. He might not exactly have a devout fanbase or niche following, but nostalgia is a very potent feeling everyone loves to relish and the prospect of a past superstar returning to the peak of his powers portends something profound and wholesome. But yet again, like his previous project preceding this—Runtown has failed to rise to the occasion, as this EP, despite his best efforts sound dated.
The production is the main issue here and it sounds very dated, like the elements were pulled out of a time capsule buried in 2017. The EP opens with Mood Swings, a slow and woozy legato with warm piano notes. The narrative on the song is loose and Runtown drones on about a night of sinful pleasures and drug-induced highs. His delivery is adequate, but the beat here is minimalistic.
The drums on End a Man are so quaint and lack so much bite, that it sounds distant. The choice of synths are also retro and while that could be a good thing, with multi layered production that fully embraces the vintage sonic ambience like Tempoe’s production on Joeboy’s IDK, the beat sounds more like a bad throwback to the past, rather than an exhilarating time travel. It’s sad because Runtown deploys some interesting flows on here. Bebe sounds much better in comparison, with some swing infusion into the bounce but the production doesn’t elevate the song either and is only functional at best.
When Do Me and The Dangerous Hearts roll in, you begin to get the sense that the sonic soundscape direction is intentional and Runtown does want his music to sound that way but the execution is subpar. Do Me is an emotive R&B song, but the full potency of its soulful-ness doesn’t hit you because the lush background vocals and guitar chords are drowned in bland baseline. The Dangerous Hearts is going for a 90s synth-pop feel with some visceral drum rolls, but once again the production is just too dated for anything to stick. It’s a shame really because the melodies, vocal deliveries and lyrical content on some of these songs are actually quite good but it’s lost in mediocre noise.
Runtown painfully struggles to stay on the beat and find his rhythm on the one song that’s well produced by Blaisebeatz. The song is ironically titled Flow and he sings about how devoted he is to the game and how distractions, detractors and obstacles can’t dim his light. The chorus is too wordy and despite the beat being much better, the song in itself is nowhere near the EP’s best offering.
If Runtown is indeed intentional in rising to the occassion and making the comeback people so desperately want from him, then he might need to make a creative overhaul to his team. From producers to writers to A&Rs and infuse some new blood, who stay on top of the pulse and have their ears to the ground. But maybe it isn’t that deep for him and he’s only making music for himself at this point. He’s earned it, that’s for sure.
Final Verdict:
Sonic Cohesion: 1.2/2
Expansive Production: 0.4/2
Songwriting: 1.3/2
Delivery: 1.0/2
Track Sequencing: 1.0/2
Total: 4.9/10
