In a time period when Hip-Hop purists are bemoaning the state of songwriting, Brooklyn MC Madwiz has delivered one of the most meticulously crafted songs I can recall with “Too Good to Be True.” The energetic jam was crafted over a year during various important junctures of the rhymer’s life.
The last verse of the song was actually written first, during a stint in rehab, where Madwiz says via e-mail that he “saw the future and realized that musically it was about to be on.”
In 2013, his Mogul Club collective had ascended from street cypher all-stars to opening for Kendrick Lamar and performing a set at Hot 97’s Summer Jam. Madwiz says he wrote the final verse in early 2014, but released the track just this month. Perhaps he needed time to refine the myriad samples that whoosh through the 5-minute lyrical exercise like articles in a funnel cloud.
“Too Good To Be True” radiates a delightful neo-90s energy, with the rhymer’s rousing, nasal voice riffing on being so dope that “I leave shows and the crowd just sit in the hall,” while also imploring shooters to ”stop aiming at the Black man.”
Sonically, the track fits aside the audio collagist soundscapes created by many modern instrumentalists, but the bouncy sample and crispy drums identify the technique’s origins as as an early ’90s aesthetic.
Madwiz is currently working on an as-of-yet-unnamed project, due in late ’16-early ’17. You can stream “Too Good to Be True” below.
