Tish Hyman is such a dynamic person. I'm not just talking about her voice, which will we get to in a second, but as a person? Tish Hyman is so dynamic. Before reviewing this song, I listened to a few of her interviews and her speech patterns, the way she talks, there's just something about her that draws me in. She's very real and in touch with her roots and you can tell from the way she dresses to the way she carries herself during these interviews. She doesn't take herself too seriously but she doesn't walk like she's the queen of Sheeba. The more I listen to this single, the more I hear the chapter in the autobiography that is her album.
Hyman has been compared to Lauryn Hill several times, and for good reason. Her voice is very unique, you don't hear something like this more than a few times in a single lifetime. There's this raspy rawness in her voice that will suck you into her music from the minute you begin listening. There is so much soul in her voice and it will completely take you over. The power and emotion in her voice is so evident that you don't even need to watch the music video to be consumed by the story she is telling in this song (but you should watch absolutely breathtakingly shot video because, bitch, I was just making a point).
The instrumentation is absolutely perfect for this intimate song. A simple guitar, powerful piano melody and a drum set by the time the chorus kicks in. Her voice is so in tune with the instruments you almost think it's an instrument as the background vocals melt in the pot of the song with the instruments. Damn girl, you better sing your ass off! We haven't even talked about the way her flow sails through the music like a water board.
The story behind this song is so powerful, with Hyman stating in the hook "There is life in New York, Underground in the coldest hearts. Lonely people are subway art." People are more than just what you see of them. There is this unspoken truce between everyone that the people Hyman is singing about (homeless people, struggling people) don't really matter as much to you because they're really just "Subway Art." They are decorations, in a way. You always expect to see them there and even if you give them a little something to help them out, you don't expect what you do to make much of a different so as opposed to them being seen as actual fellow human beings, they're more seen as an idea. Hyman brings their struggles to light as "lonely people cast away for the crimes they committed and the love ones they pain" who simply "hope for redemption on a crowded train." The imagery of that alone is enough to invoke something inside of you,
I'm not sure if her rap is a freestyle or if she wrote it. She said in an interview with Jay Fresh that she doesn't write all that much anymore and does freestyles mostly, but she's been through all of this so I can't imagine it would be too hard for her to lay it all out there in the studio. At first I thought she was rapping her own struggles (but I don't think she has a baby) but this is more about her surroundings and what she sees. Individual things that ail people whether it's that someones "baby needs to diapers" or if they "just got out of jail and nobody wants to hire" (etc.). She wants us to see New York through her eyes because she's been there and she knows what it's like. The message behind the song is gorgeous and highlighted in the music video. Go watch it. Yeah, now. Go.
I, like many other people, have very high expectations for her new album "Dedicated To" which drops in 2016! Watch out for two new singles before the end of the year!
SONG GRADE: A-
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