[REVIEW] DIVISIONS

Whether intentional or not, Gibrillah (@_gibrillah) and Danté Knows’ (@dante.knows) latest track Divisions feels like a Kanye West highlight reel. Seriously though, hear me out. 

The slick production is full of references to the Chicago born artist. Divisions opens with a soul sample, which is pitched up as soon as Gibrillah starts to speak his piece. One of the first lines uttered by the Western Sydney emcee is ‘made it through centuries, battling slavery’. Hello Twitter. When the bass kicks in (and it does indeed kick in, courtesy of production powerhouse Korky Buchek [@korky.buchek]), the accompanying keys sound like the second part of Father Stretch My Hands. But it only gets better

‘I get tribalistic when I pray’
(Image Credit: Provided by Bodega Collective)

As Gibrillah pushes on with his gritty, determined verse, we see a cameo from a certain MVP. Hey Mama comes to mind. Oh, and that copy of Malcolm X’s autobiography is certainly a reference to Kanye’s dad. But enough about Ye. 

Knows jumps into the mix with a cadence of his own. Rapping about his struggles and challenges as an up and coming tastemaker, he glides effortlessly over the drill influenced instrumental. The chorus sees Gibrillah in full effect, before jumping into his metaphor-filled second verse.

Something I only noticed after multiple viewings was the consistency in the video’s colour palette. Different shades of ochre and auburn tie the visuals together, even when jumping between different locations. The Aaron Bull-shot music video (@__aaronbull) brings out the best in Gibrillah and Knows, keeping enough simplicity to let the rappers carry the track. That mirror cigarette shot was pretty cool as well, tying in with that low angle shot of Gibrillah smoking in the track’s intro. Nicely done.

(Image credit: Still from Divisions music video directed by @__aaronbull)

This release comes off the back of Long Time for Gibrillah and Bang My Line from Knows. Both emcees have clearly been hard at work, finding time to feature as well as put out original tracks. Divisions should serve as a nice teaser for what’s to come. It’s no coincidence that we’re getting a heatwave in Sydney over the next week. We need more collabs guys.

If you’re a fan of Denzel Curry or Mick Jenkins, Divisions is not to be missed. Stream it here.