The rap game is long overdue for a revamped playing field, and there is no shortage of female rappers to even the score in the male-dominant genre. More girls are not only rapping, but they are also doing it well, proving all along that women had the motive and moxie but lacked the support afforded to men. At the center of this debate is another category of artist – even more discriminated against and seeking their rightful place in the conversation – the transgender rapper. One such artist is Comatose Red Ivy is a transgender rapper, singer and songwriter, who began her music career October 16 2020 at 5:43am, after being poisoned by, whom she calls, her ‘ex-not-boyfriend’, and left to die. Comatose lives in both the real and fictional worlds, where she surrounded by alter-egos, split personalities and a vast number of emotional altering characters who interact with her existence.
Comatose Red Ivy’s style often has similarities with Sadboi rap, a style of music that has truly been able to transcend all genres and even move into the charts. Sadboi rap has been bringing to light issues about mental health, addiction and the overwhelming feeling of loneliness and heartbreak that toxic masculinity doesn’t always want to address in the rap and hip hop. So does that mean that this music is solving these issues?
Not really, but that is not the intention, what Sadboi music does, is help to normalize emotional vulnerability and getting in touch with one’s feelings. And as such Comatose Red Ivy uses the stylings of this medium to manifest her inner feelings and state of being. Her latest single, “Fade To The Past”, carries with it all the heavy baggage of loss, loneliness, and longing. The beat is soft and somber, fully exploiting the sadness in the atmosphere.
Listening to her music, it is not hard to understand that Comatose Red Ivy focuses on the melancholy, and dramatic yet understated, sentimental devastation. Her afflicted voice, carrying the sorrowful narrative slowly forward.
In so doing, she is also challenging and expanding the limits of the genre. In the past year, Comatose has hit her stride with a number of releases, as she unpacked her oscillating emotional spectrum across these tracks, keeping fans clued into what state she was in.
Perhaps this wavering sense of emotional identity is what draws people to her stories, and probably because her voice is impossible to forget. It’s deep, deadpan, and then nuanced in all the right places, a ball of understated emotion that exudes the genuineness that many of her peers so desperately lack.
Her lyrics and flow most closely resemble storytelling poetry. All of which makes her hard to overlook. On “Fade To The Past”, Comatose Red Ivy is equal parts unpredictable and calculated – a somewhat distressing and heartbreaking mixture that leaves listeners in the palm of her hand.
OFFICIAL LINKS: INSTAGRAM – SOUNDCLOUD
