“This isn’t me telling you to download my mixtape…this is me asking you to listen to my story.” The closing words of the trailer serve as the perfect introduction to the project. On Searching Sylvan Quest takes the listener on a journey through his life. It is sure to draw quick comparisons to Kendrick Lamar’s Good Kid Madd City but it personally brought back memories of Masta Ace’s concept albums (Disposable Arts, A Long Hot Summer) and even the classic hip-hopera A Prince Among Theives. If you’ve listened to any of those albums you know those are pretty big claims but a few listens will make it hard to debate.
I must admit my expectations for the mixtape weren’t terribly high. I’d heard his verse on ’24 Freestyle’ and saw him open for Logic on the ‘While You Wait’ Tour and thought “this guy is pretty decent I’ll keep my eye on him”. When pressing play I expected to like a few songs pull them onto my phone and call it a day. As I began listening I fought the early urge to skip through the tape listening to songs here and there. Instead I began listening from front to back and was quickly drawn in. There are few albums that have the pull of Searching Sylvan. It’s an extremely well crafted narrative that is deeply personal, impeccably produced and inspirational. From family issues, to street drama and his struggle to make it as an artist. Each track gives you a peice of Quest’s life and leaves the listener feeling like they’ve been a fan for years or even a friend who’s watched him through the journey.
Though it is technically a mixtape, it is beyond album quality and I predict it to go down as one of the best projects of the year. I was going to run through my favourite tracks but this truly needs to be listened to from the very beginning to its close (you won’t be disappointed). You can stream the tape below and grab the free download at SearchingSylvan.com. Quest is about to have a huge year and we guarantee you’ll be hearing his name pop up everywhere really soon, so get familiar.
