Photo Courtesy of Arkh Zeus
Hailing from Everett, the 21 year-old rapper Arkh Zeus has been releasing music since 2014, when he dropped his debut album The Tensai. If you do that math, that means he’s been honing his craft since he was 15. Fast forward six years and the rapper is ready to drop his latest full-length release, The Tensai IV. “Tensai” is a Japanese word that roughly translates to “genius.” In many ways, this album series is documenting Zeus’ continued sharpening of his abilities as a lyricist, musician, and creative visionary.
“The album,” Zeus says about Tensai IV, “entails a deep journey inward, following themes of existentialism, introspection and transformation.” Preceded by the single “Lilies,” which came out on December 1st and is for sure one of the album’s standout tracks, Tensai IV definitely fits the current mood brought on by shorter daytime hours, About “Lilies,” Zeus said that the song “is a plea of desperation; tearing off each petal of my being and wishing to bloom into something more beautiful.”
With the promise of Kid Cudi’s return to The Man on the Moon trilogy on the horizon, Arkh Zeus will serve as a more-than-suitable stand-in for the time being, as fans of Cudder will no doubt find a familiar, friendly, and searching avatar in Zeus’ melodic hum of a flow, as well as his introspective focus, a damaged voice seeking healing from within himself.
Zeus has a penchant for deep, moving metaphors in his lyrics. Take this snippet from “Scarred Ties,” which seems to examine interpersonal relationships, especially how ill-intentioned connections can take a toll on an individual’s trust. “Look at this garden of anemones, my heart says they all resemble enemies, but I let them all become a friend to me, look what they did to me.” It’s sad and tender, and inspires a desire to pat Zeus on the back. That’s how it is sometimes with the people you give trust; not everything in life is as reciprocal as we might hope.
The Tensai IV Album Art
The rest of the album offers features from collaborators Onbloom, Laurencia, Shandelle, Sarah Cordova, and Dorothy Merlos. That’s a group of talented, mostly-local singers who add a touch of airy vocal flair, often harmonizing with Arkh Zeus’ main vocals. Instrumentally, there are enough viby guitar strums and melodies to give Tensai IV an emo tinge, just around the edges. Zeus and Owen – another Everett-based producer – handled production for the album.
Looking at the track titles, you can start to notice a pattern in Zeus’ naming tendencies: so many of the titles make reference to natural occurrences that are induced by intense, dynamic metamorphosis. “Fossils” are the imbued shades of long-dead creatures from millions upon million of years in the past, impressed into the Earth from eons of pressure and seismic change. “Dying Lotus” and “Lilies” reference flowers, which bloom and wither over the course of a year. “Butterfiles” go through three significant life stages, stuck in an isolated chrysalis before they can emerge in their full majesty. Arkh Zeus is painting himself as such a phenomenon: something mutable, changing, gradually adapting and evolving as environmental pressures dictate.
Stream The Tensai IV below via Spotify or on Arkh Zeus’ Soundcloud page.