Tobi Lou Returns to his Bread & Butter with Experimental 3-Track EP, 'LINGO STARR'
Evan Dale // July 9, 2020
Back to the basics.
Almost a year removed from his debut album, Live on Ice, and never far removed from a prolific single or video release, wavy Chicago bubble rap star, Tobi Lou is returning to his bread & butter – the ultra-short EP (remember Tobi Lou and the Moon? Tobi Lou and the Loop? Tobi Lou and the Juice?) LINGO STARR is his latest, and it’s a well-curated 3-track, 6-minute exhibition of the fun-loving, yet hard-hitting sound he’s helped usher into the hip-hop mainstream. All burgeoning with bizarre, unpredictable pop experimentation and otherworldly attempts and successes to break the mold, his knack at never losing a step as a vibrant rapper through the three tracks is perhaps what’s most impressive.
Throughout LINGO STARR, his lyricism and delivery remain consistent to an artist that has never failed to display his rap ability. And equally true to himself is the pop-adjacent auditory aesthetics with which he defines the softer edge of his music, drawing in fans of both ends of the hip-hop-pop spectrum for a wide-ranging variety of self-differentiating reasons.
First take: the change of pace in the closing moments of RETURN OF THE DRAGON and the entirety of STRIKES BACK are the most promising pieces of the project towards where it is that the always evolving Tobi Lou will head in the near future. But regardless of preference, it is just a bright spot to see a positivist rapper and a truly kind human continue to make his difference in the world where we need it now more than ever.
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