Range is born of itself. Experiences, changes, failures, and subsequent successes breed our balance. When an artist boasts well-roundedness, its due to natural-born talent, practice, experimentation, and of course, how the range of their own experiences has shaped it all. 

 

Introducing: WizTheMc.

 

Young but not at all a rookie, Wiz is a melodic hip-hop artist bending the very nature of genre as we know it. And his newest delivery, an album titled Growing Teeth, is all too humble a title for a generational leader with undeniable bite.

 

Don’t be fooled by the laid-back demeanor. WizTheMc simply makes it sound easy. What he’s doing is actually not. Somewhere in his 20-something years spent between South Africa, Germany, and Canada, he’s developed a knack at immersing his listeners in subtle, beachy guitar chords, bubbly, lovestruck hooks, and seemingly effortless, yet lyrically endowed bouts of rap. His range is born of the range in his culturally global exposure, his natural gift for music, and his unprecedented years of limelight releases for such a young artist. 

 

WizTheMc’s 2019 was insane. He dropped three EP’s: Birthtape, Your Valentine, and Nothing Bigger Than Little Things that accompanied a number of singles so obtuse, it’s not even worth counting. Just know that when you undoubtedly find something(s) to love about Growing Teeth, there’s a whole lot more to discover in WizTheMc’s canon. 

 

Growing Teeth itself is his third full-length installment in as many years, and truthfully, his most well-rounded and refined to date. If he’s just now growing teeth, it’s a second row, because 2018 collaborative tape, Backin Toronto featuring KirillTheOne, and Blessings in Disguise from the same year, paint a wildly vivid image of an artist that has always made his sound his own. Still, Growing Teeth is proper in progression and adherence to its easy-goingness. 

 

Built of 10 short, sunset-reminiscent tracks, it’s one of the most listenable hip-hop projects to come out in the past couple years. WizTheMc’s flow is naturally subdued and sing-songy. Overtop the guitar strums that define every track on the project, Growing Teeth emerges as a study on the kind of warm-weather, good-vibes hip-hop that drew the Summer of 2008 to the canvas of Shwayze’s self-titled debut album. 

 

That being said, Growing Teeth is much deeper than Shwayze was. Lyrically, WizTheMc, discusses at depth, family, growth, morals, love, and loss. And for a project that comes in at just over 20 minutes, that means that each and every track is stacked: profound, meaningful, and thought-provoking. 

 

Every track is also an emotional exploration. Ups and downs dot the project’s length, making it feel much longer than it is. 10 tracks capable of standing on their own, powerful in their makeup, Growing Teeth at large plays out the same way: beachy, warm & inviting at surface level, but complex, in-depth & meaningful beneath the mire of WizTheMc’s blasé texture. 

 

A gorgeously strained vocal delivery, WizTheMc goes beyond simply being hard-working and prolific, and extends his uniqueness into the vast expanse of being naturally different from the ground up. Though the entirety of Growing Teeth goes featureless, it doesn’t at all sound that way, and that’s thanks to his multitalented skillset. Born of his knack for effortlessly switching up his style, each track is a compositional exploration of his range. As a vocalist, WizTheMc is able to instill his choruses with emotionality and relatability. As a rapper, he’s able to dive deeper into the stories that have made him such an relatable and emotionally capable figure in the first place. And in harmony with the instrumentally founded production he’s fond of, his range circles sounding like an all-too talented friend spilling his heart out around a beach bonfire while also being a generational talent capable of bridging the gaps between hip-hop, pop, soul, and folk acoustic. 

 

At a moment in music history where genre has never meant less and where artists are utilizing the full scope of their talent in order to make something never done before, WizTheMc, with the release of Growing Teeth has established his position as one of the most transcendent and capable forces of indefinable music talent. He can rap, he can sing, he can write, and he pulled all of his skills together under the banner of beachy guitars and meaningful thematic explorations to make Growing Teeth one of the most listenable, layered projects of 2020 so far.