Sadistik- Haunted Gardens
Parents die, beauty dies
Blue insides, suicide
Death will come for you and I
This head is just a room I hide in
And that’s just the opening lines. It only gets better from there.
Sadistik is a Los Angeles based rapper of whom I have never heard. But now I know about him, he’s one of the best I’ve ever heard. I’m tempted to not write anything here and just give you a list of my favorite lines. Maybe just one or two. Besides the opening:
All I do is die repeat
I piece together puzzle pieces
Of my youth to find relief.
That was off “8 1/2.” Then there’s:
I never know which way to go
The drugs are overrated
Nothing’s gonna save my soul
Being sober’s overrated too
How about one last one from “Coals”?:
In these seven seas I’m setting sail
Since everything turned to ebony.
That last one is only significant in that I can’t figure out why he said “ebony.” He wants to say that everything turned dark or black, so then why mention an exotic wood? Maybe it was just to get that assonance with “everything” but I give Sadistik a bit more credit than that. Every word on this album was chosen for a reason, and for whatever reason this one is inexplicable to me.
The album deals with themes of isolation, loneliness and loss. You do feel that after you finish listening to it. It is not unlike going through a meat grinder. The fact that the lyrics are so powerful doesn’t actually help, it makes the whole thing a bit more tragic. The sense is that this is the only thing left to Sadistik, and perhaps one of the reasons he is so lonely i.e. spending so much time in his head writing rhymes.
The production on here is nothing to sneeze at either. The beats are haunting and melancholy and use some top notch samples. There are times though, when the beats don’t really live up to the rhymes. I just wonder what a different producer might have done. To say it another way: it sounded sad, it just didn’t make me feel as sad as it could have. With the right instrumentals and these lyrics this could have had me in tears. Instead I feel empty, which is no small feat for a piece of music. If there was an area in which there might be improvement that might be it. This isn’t a disappointment, more me trying to find something to criticize in an irreproachable work.
5/5 You need to get a lyrics sheet and listen to this album. The lyrics are too good, the feelings evoked (though not living up to their potential) are powerful. Please, you owe it to yourself to listen to something this good again and again. Like I say, just make sure to use a lyrics sheet. Sadistik raps fast. Even with a lyrics sheet you’ll still miss things, which might incentivize you to listen again. One can only hope.