In returning to the moniker that broke him into the art rap gallery after the Scallops Hotel departure, milo is not the nerd we assumed him to be. His Hellfyre Club debut hinted of the shedding and Plain Speaking departed further into the psyche rather than the imagination. Unlike A Toothpaste Suburb, milo no longer feels the privilege of adventuring through imaginary places on So The Flies Don’t Come. In the title itself the suggestion is life, no wasted seconds, no cease in movement because the alternative is expiration.
And so, milo leads with “Zen Scientist”, a track that pairs him with the rap elder he’s referenced many times prior in Myka 9. It’s no accident milo’s adlibs over producer Kenny Segal’s moody keys and deep bass groove address a seeming misconception, nor is it innocuous banter for the sake of rap tradition. It’s a prologue to the style to come. As a zen scientist, milo invokes numerous religions and folklore—the tao to Sisyphus—that paints him a transcendent hero with a thousand faces, a new rap god and universe man. Kenny Segal’s production on “Zen Scientist” suggests depressive depths, but milo counters with acknowledgments that he’s no longer beneath a rock and a hard place. Rap braggadocio has suffered decades of stagnancy like trying to swim with its weight in gold around its neck and with “Zen Scientist” milo’s mythos offers an alternative in which the soul flies, rather than drowns.
milo’s So The Flies Don’t Come is out September 25 on Ruby Yacht and available for pre-order on his Bandcamp.
