On April 22, 2016, Sammy Wilk released his highly anticipated album, Ready for War. The 13-track LP is the tangible product of Wilk bringing his passion and enthusiasm to the music space.
Originally from Nebraska, twenty-year-old Sammy Wilk gained Internet fame through Vine and collaborated with Skate Maloley on many hip-hop tracks. Since then, Wilk has developed his own unique voice. In an interview with Billboard, he described the album as a project encompassing an “island feel” kind of sound.
Sammy Wilk’s Ready for War falls under the hip hop-reggae genre, but it’s much more nuanced than that.
Vocally, Wilk gives a nod to his roots and to industry genres by mostly using an American accent followed by a blend of Caribbean and American rap accents. His lyrics range from topics such as relaxing to having feel-good days to romance; many songs serenade a love interest.
Top three picks from this album are definitely tracks such as “Chase the Day”, the eponymous “Ready for War”, and “Cloud 9”. Positive and bright, “Chase the Day” has a reggae-pop feel and demonstrates the unifying island sound found throughout the album. But Sammy Wilk shows us that he is more complex than that with the addition of strings and throbbing trap baselines. “Cloud 9” is the so-called black sheep of the album with its EDM-inspired synth which flows into ska and reggae beats.
With Ready for War, Wilk brings his A-game and debuts a fun, experimental style he can call his own. Each individual track has its own special quirks, but they work in harmony to deliver a cohesive vision for this project. You can check Sammy out on Spotify and iTunes.