2hi is an artist who has been on an awesome run in 2023. Throughout this year, he has been prolific with his output, showing his diversity as a rapper while growing in popularity and notoriety over the last year or so. He is one of the many Milwaukee artists helping Milwaukee on the map as a haven for upcoming dynamic Hip Hop artists. After several years of honing his craft with a plethora of releases on Soundcloud and other streaming services, 2hi started to take off when his EP HEY GANG! started to gain traction online in various online Hip Hop communities, helping 2hi start to make a name for himself. He has capitalized on that success in 2023, staying prolific with his releases and making sure his name stays on the mind of everyone who has been exposed to him so far while also gaining new fans every day. In 2023, 2hi released several stand-alone singles and a full-length album called Who Cares Who Started It? It’s Music!(I wrote about a few of these singles at the beginning of the summer, and I also wrote about Who Cares Who Started It? It’s Music! when it came out. Please go read those write-ups after reading this one if you have not yet). 2hi has shown how unique and special he is through all of those releases; fortunately for us big fans of his, 2hi was not done in 2023 after releasing Who Cares Who Started It? It’s Music!, as he just dropped a short collaborative EP with iBn Farmacia called BIG FARMA. With all of that being said, here is how I feel about 2hi and iBn Farmacia’s BIG FARMA. Please let me know in the comments below how you feel about BIG FARMA, and also comment the names of any other up-and-coming artists you think I should check out.
‘Lil Bit,’ which also includes frequent 2hi collaborator ThatGuyEli, has a different sound from what I would expect to hear from 2hi. This song is a lot more upbeat and eccentric than what most people would probably know him for. The song is driven by a quick and hard-hitting beat that makes me want to rage and jump around in a mosh pit when it comes on. This is the kind of beat that will immediately inject energy into anyone when they hear it; I literally want to sit here headbanging while I am listening to and writing about it. The melody for this song has a foreboding element that matches the tough energy of the beat. This quirky and kind of creepy melody adds to the larger-than-life feeling of the song. 2hi’s vocal performance on ‘Lil Bit’ is just as zany and animated as the instrumental. His vocals help the song pop and make it so fun to listen to. Toward the end of ‘Lil Bit,’ the instrumental and vocals become chopped and screwed, creating an interesting texture that calms the mood of the track down a bit, which is nice after how lively it was to this point. ‘Lil Bit’ is a track that starts this EP with a bang, and it shows a different side to 2hi’s sound that I appreciate a lot. ‘Stuck,’ which also features a contribution from Zolton, is a song that is a lot closer to what I would say that I know 2hi for based on what I have heard from him in the past. This is a murky and heavy Trap track with a sound that seems inspired by the intense Memphis Trap music made popular by artists like Young Dolph and Key Glock. ‘Stuck’ is a song that has a beat switch about 60% through the song; both sections of the instrumental are equally as powerful and interesting in their way. The first part of this track consists of a quirky melody that has a cold and rigid feeling to it. Something about this melody makes me think of a snowy winter night; it is sort of icy and inviting at the same time. The melody in the second half of ‘Stuck’ is a bit lighter, taking on a bit more of an inviting and welcoming sound that I appreciate. The beats(as the beat does slightly change when the melody changes) in both sections of the song are sludgy and rough, giving the song an overall menacing quality that makes it pound in the best way. 2hi’s vocals on both parts of ‘Stuck’ are floaty and ethereal; his vocals kind of contrast the blunt feeling that the instrumental has, creating a juxtaposition that makes the song riveting and engaging. ‘Stuck’ is a cool, mucky Trap track that fans of grimy underground Trap should love. 2hi closes out this EP with ‘Big Suds,’ which contains a contribution from another frequent 2hi collaborator, No B. This is the most vicious and rough song of the EP. This song has the kind of sound that will pump up anyone when they hear it. ‘Big Suds’ is the kind of song that I would want to listen to before I get in a fight or something of that nature; it is a thunderous Trap track that gets my heart pumping hard when it comes on. ‘Big Suds’ sounds retro and current at the same time. There is an element to the melody and pacing of ‘Big Suds’ that has an old-school Trap quality to it. This melody and beat immediately made me think of the music Lil Wayne and 2 Chainz made at the beginning of their careers. The main difference between that kind of music and this song is how distorted this instrumental is. ‘Big Suds’ has heavy distortion and saturation all over the instrumental and vocals, giving it an ultramodern quality that fits into one of the biggest trends in underground Trap music today. 2hi’s vocal performance on this track is animated and gritty, and it goes so well with this instrumental. I like the distortion on the vocals in ‘Big Suds,’ as it makes the song even more potent. With ‘Big Suds,’ 2hi and iBn Farmacia close this EP out on a powerful note that matches the overall vigor of the two preceding tracks nicely.
2hi is an artist who keeps improving and expanding his artistry with each release. It seems like there are no limits to what he can do, as his sound continues to get more and more diverse and he continues to put out all different kinds of bangers. On BIG FARMA, he demonstrates once again that he can make so many different distinctive types of Hip Hop. iBn Farmacia gives 2hi some super cool and distinctive instrumentals on this EP. This project makes me pretty excited to check out more of the work that iBn Farmacia has made, as he shows how talented and diverse he is as a producer. BIG FARMA is yet another example of why 2hi is one of the most exciting rappers coming out of Milwaukee right now, I am very excited to see how he expands and grows in 2024.
EAST SIDE VIBES 