Mxtthew Txylor - ‘dead in my eyes’ Deep Dive
'dead in my eyes' OUT NOW
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'dead in my eyes' OUT NOW 〰️
Techniques Used:
Instrumental reduction to create emphasis
Lyrical repetition to build theme
Contrast and juxtaposition to generate creative tension
Check Out Mxtthew Txylor here
Philly artist Mxtthew Txylor (formerly known as K!d Hype) has finally dropped his long-awaited single ‘dead in my eyes’ featuring Widow Winslow and Jay Nivana. The track runs at nearly four minutes, giving each artist ample time to display their diverse skills. Widow’s hook is hard hitting and aggressive, her blown out vocals accompanied by intense bass and drums as well as vocal samples. She warns of an “apocalypse around the corner” with a dark tone and an edge to her voice that suggests she genuinely does see impending doom. This contrasts sharply with Jay Nivana’s melodic and smooth sing-rap delivery which blurs the lines between genre and style, showing off his fantastic natural voice and captivating the listener with his catchy flow. His delivery is more laidback, carrying all of the energy yet none of the harsh intensity of Widow’s. This offers a juxtaposition between hard and soft, in-your-face and laidback, adding an interesting tension to the track. Nivana’s verse is a moment of relief and relaxation among the fiery storm generated by Widow and Txylor.
Mxtthew Txylor’s verse stands out as one of the best of his career, focusing primarily on his mental health. He discusses his anxiety and trust issues with those around him, largely caused by untrustworthy people in his past who have betrayed him, as shown in the highlighted lyrics below:
The first technical strategy employed by Txylor and producers Mavericc and DCeemusik is their deft control of the instrumental’s presence in each section of the track. The track can be broken into six distinct sections, composed of the hook, Txylor and Nivana’s verses, and the outro. On each section, layers are added or taken away from the instrumental to increase or decrease its complexity and intensity, at times drawing more focus to the energy and passion of the track while at others allowing the lyrics and message to take center stage. A perfect example of this is the transition from Widow’s first chorus to Txylor’s verse, where the vocal samples switch to a more melodic and slower pace (provided on the verse by Nox Lauren) and the drums and bass fade out entirely at parts. The reduced instrumental presence allows the listener to focus on Txylor’s. The same process is applied to Nivana’s verse, where the instrumental is stripped down to its bare essentials for the duration of his time before being brought back up to full strength for Widow’s chorus. The high intensity and complexity of the instrumental on the hooks drive forward the energy of the track. However, Widow’s words are just as important as the rest, and the outro provides her with the opportunity to deliver her hook again over a less intense instrumental, one more similar to the one found during the verses.
The second technique used is lyrical repetition to build and maintain a consistent theme and tone. Widow maintains the same lyrics and flow for the hook and the outro — though it is obviously common for a song’s hook to be consistent, they take the extra step of carrying it onward to the outro. This ensures that the main thing that sticks in your head will be the powerful and infectious energy the song has, which is best exemplified by her sections.
Every noteworthy or classic track has some element of creative tension to keep it engaging and interesting throughout — this could be lyrical (such as the shifting perspectives of Vic Mensa’s ‘Heaven on Earth’), instrumental (the varying beats of Travis’s ‘SICKO MODE’), or stylistic (Kanye and Bon Iver’s ‘Lost in the World’). Txylor utilizes this final method to create a gripping track with a captivating energy curve that rises and falls through peaks and valleys across the nearly four minute runtime. As we briefly mentioned before, Widow’s high energy blown out vocals and intense hook are counterbalanced by Txylor and Nivana’s more lowkey verses. However, there is still contrast between their verses — Txylor utilizes a straight delivery, firmly in the field of rap, while Nivana rapidly approaches singing with an autotuned and r&b infused delivery. Each of the three artists bring a totally different methodology to spreading their message: intense singing, hard rapping, and lowkey sing-rap. ‘dead in my eyes’ would not be complete without each artist bringing their unique perspective and style, and they work in harmony together to delivery a phenomenal final product that has the best of each world.
Tap in with Mxtthew Txylor, Widow Winslow, and Jay Nivana on their incredible new single ‘dead in my eyes’!
Don’t forget to check out Mxtthew Txylor on Instagram @mxtthewtxylor_ or at the bottom of this page.