Soulbek, “Dead at 7:30” prod. 730hahah
Soulbek is a 24-year-old genre-defying artist based out of Detroit, Michigan. His recent EP, “Dead at 7:30” is a testament to his love of dark scream-syle vocal performances, alongside the instrumentals of the modern underground hip-hop landscape. Soulbek’s blend of heavy trap beats with hardcore punk verses creates a new unique sound that is straight from the darkness and shadow of his soul. His emotions are raw in these screaming violent lyrical confessions, “I love screaming on these beats because it’s me. This is therapy for me.”
“That’s why I called myself Soulbek… Everything comes from the soul.”
In a recent conversation with RSO Underground, Soulbek explained that “(He) started a whole new wave honestly… I’m really trying to do something different like I told you nobody is doing this sh*t right now!” He later described the wide community and network surrounding him and this new sub-genre, spanning across multiple music producers and creative minds looking to build upon his artistic visions. Soulbek aims to play a key role in the evolution of the current “hellcore” movement, uncovering more of his own individuality with each release.
Soulbek’s recent “Dead at 7:30” EP is a 5-track project spanning just over 10-and-a-half minutes. Originally released to streaming platforms on November 4th, 2023, this project’s rollout continues almost a year after its initial publication. “This project deserves more love.”
All 5 tracks on this project were mixed and mastered by the Czech-Republic-based audio engineer, Mxtt Bourn, and each instrumental was fully produced by 730hahah. This 23-year-old Russian beatmaker is best known for his connection to Yeat and his role in the affiliated “Lyfestyle Corporation” record label. Working alongside the viral Los-Angeles based musician, 730haha has garnered esteemed creative roles, including production credits for tracks; Mr. Inbetweenit, TELL U AGAIN, FAX, and most recently FATË from Yeat’s latest “LYFESTYLE” project from October 18, 2024.
Despite having a project solely produced by a beatmaker with this huge co-sign, Soulbek makes it clear that he is an individual artist and riding his own wave. Aiming to separate himself from established movements and aesthetics outside of the “Soulbek” brand itself, he released “Dead at 7:30” under his own independent label, “GRIMEKULT”.
All of the visual artwork for "Dead by 7:30" was created by Babekeef, a 3D-digital artist that was discovered early on by Soulbek. This Russian-based creative has the full trust of Soulbek with him saying, "I put all of my faith in him to work on all of my upcoming projects with me." After giving Babekeef an opportunity to work on their first collaborative project, the two are now co-creating a masterpiece-level 3D artistic universe that spans across his entire discography and visual promotional materials.
The EP’s opening track, “Hundred Soul Homocide” sets the tone for this listening experience,
Interesting scream-esque ab-libs of “BLEHHHH” and “F***CKKKK” fill the auditorial atmosphere alongside a stylistically distorted & bassy instrumental, making the listener feel as if they are walking up the steps to a haunted evil castle, hearing the cries of the resident trapped within. Soulbek’s violent lyricism warns the listener of his twisted mind state looming ahead throughout the tape, “Drain all the blood from my veins… I'm wrecking the scene, Eating ya spleen… Talk out ya neck and I drain arteries, Cauterize eyes with the up of my beam, Hundred soul homicide blowin off steam.”
Interestingly, this track also seems to showcase some inklings of the artist’s personal spirituality and faith intertwined with the disturbed verses.
“Should I repent to the one we call Messiah (Oh my god), It's been a struggle but I’m chasing my desires (Yeah yeah yeah), Count my blessings now I feel like Obadiah.”
This discussion of Obadiah is very interesting and insightful to Soulbek’s mindset and relationship to faith. Obadiah is a minor biblical character from the Old Testament, who warns the ancient nation of Edom of their impending judgment. We see through Soulbek’s “cross” neck and face tattoo designs, featured also in the project’s cover art, that he has some personal spiritual relationship to Christ and Christian imagery.
A similar feeling of “judgment” foretold by Obadiah may be experienced firsthand by the artist, regarding his artistic creations and personal expressions. These feelings may stem from prospective judgment directly by his “Messiah” for having what Soulbek deems as dark “sinful” thoughts, or it could also represent members of his previous religious communities turning against him for expressing himself in unconventional ways.
The EP’s 2nd track, “Organized Chaos” brings in the rockstar aesthetic with a booming intro of guitars and crazy 808 bass patterns that can shake & rattle a car mirror. More screaming-style vocal performances from Soulbek bring a cohesive style and feel between the first two songs. A more airy opening verse quickly turns into quickfire bar spitting as the beat drops.
"Overkill", the 3rd track off of “Dead by 7:30” switches up the vibe, less focused on the scream-style vocals, opting for a more traditional rage rap track. A crazy loop of digital synths atop 730hahah’s iconic signture strong bass set the stage for the project’s first feature from vvssantoyo. Despite this being a standout song from the tracklist, the consistency of mixing and production style keeps this halfway point within the hardcore universe of the EP.
“Vengeful” brings back the pain & emotion-filled screaming verses and soul expressions to the 4th track of the project. Standing as a message and warning to anyone who “runs up” on or “turns (their) back on” him. “Vengeful run up on Soulbek you must have a death wish, You must have a death wish (Yah), Vengeance run up on me and i’m leaving 'em headless… Destroying everything, Take my sword i’m slicing shit, Come face your reckoning, (Yeah-yeah-yeah-yeah), Sick inside my brain, Turn your back on me, And I will bring the fucking rain.”
‘Past Life” closes out the EP with another smooth synth instrumental, offering a more chilled-out vibe compared to the rest of the “screaming-style” tracks, while maintaining the same tone of violence in the lyrics. “And I'm bout to take a bite x2, Yeah I also got a knife, Shedding blood is what I like x2.” The project ends with the line “Hundred rounds will leave ‘em crispin,” referencing again the opening track’s “Hundred Soul Homocide”.
Since the release of this EP in November of 2023, Soulbek has gone on to release 3 new singles and a full EP with dansec; the “Celestial” EP, “Blood & Hate”, “Constantine” and “Fidelity”, in addition to 3 more tracks from Soulbek’s “Rebirth” Single release, that dropped on Christmas Day in 2023.
Overall “Dead by 7:30” and the other projects within Soulbek’s discography offer a very cool and unique take on “rage” hip-hop, reviving these classic scream-punk aesthetics into a new era of alternative music and culture. I have noticed the popularization of other classic rock and Midwest emo styles being meshed with underground hip-hop, some iconic examples being Lil Peep, Sybyr, and Semetary. However, this true hardcore rock vibe, while visually mirrored by artists like Playboi Carti and Lil Uzi Vert, is now getting its proper sonic implementation through the creations of Soulbek.
Check out Soulbek Everywhere!