“Destiny is a guess; a guess of what you know, what it knows about you and what it knows you would do. But then again, I might be wrong and destiny could be totally in control of you” the 9-year-old whiz kid questioned about the future confidently belts between tracks on Phoenix rapper Sincerely Collins’ latest album, The Legend of the Phoenix. For Sincerely, the parallels of destiny and his current trajectory are laid out for us as he wax poetics his autobiography over 16 beautifully produced tracks.
Opening the album is a news bulletin about a woman, Lisa Dianne Jameson, who left work one evening in 1991 and was never seen again. As listeners unpack the following track “Better Different Intro,” you come to find out that woman is Collins’ mother as he emotionally recalls, “I started from the bottom lost my mama at two, I was just a little shorty but that moment I knew/I was different I was different I ain’t one in the same, I was sad and I was lonely I was hoping for change.”
Collins dives deeper into the loss of his mother on “Red Coat (2012 Version).” The song borrows its name for the last thing his mother was seeing wearing, and wrestles with struggles of acceptance, “I’m so sick of wondering why waking up in these cold sweats, wishing I would just die and why the fuck I don’t know yet/what happened what happened to the girl who was wearing this red coat she came and she went now I don’t know what the fuck I live for” and battles his rage with, “And your brother just told me he think that he might know the man to blame, and I’ll kill him when I see him if I don’t kill me first do I really wanna do that because it might make things worse.”
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The Legend of the Phoenix isn’t just limited to personal accounts of trauma. Tracks like “Other” are able to sum up the angst of not only an entire race but that of an entire generation as he delivers, “When I run into Trump I might fuck him up for my Mexicans, stand him up and fuck him up for the rest of us/Word to Seinfeld we gon’ celebrate like Festivus.” Sincerely is able to capture a successful commercial sound without losing integrity on the Troy Ave., Reo Cragun, and Roscoe Dash assisted “Limelight,” “Midas Touch,” “Possible,” and “I Want You” that all boast rich, full percussion, paradisiacal keys, and infectious bass lines.
Enlisting his collaborators and friends: Tony Chocolate, Qux, and Charlie Handsome along with himself, Sincerely creates a euphoric and regal canvas of jazz influences, Hip Hop elements, and live instrumentation. The Legend of the Phoenix may not possess material to catapult him into elite conversation but those checking for it will certainly gravitate to the unique balance of lyrically harmony and emotional depth that Collins provides.
