When Porter Ray released his album, Eye of the Beholder, I likened his cadence to smoke swirling through the air. It was almost as if he was making the words dance out of his mouth. Now, he has released a new album that plays upon the fluidity of his flow, entitled When Words Dance.
Throughout Porter’s catalog, you can hear jazzy undertones to his atmospheric beats. In his newest release, however, jazz takes to the forefront providing a classic sound from start to finish. His lyrics fall out of his mouth like meticulously planned choreography that coincides with the beat.
“I make visual music hoping that you can vibe to it. Put your head in the sky, I’m trying to fly through it.”
-Porter Ray, “Pisces”
Throughout the stories that he tells, he flows between abstract concepts of life and blunt honesty. I feel as though all of my favorite rappers are those that have an understanding and appreciation for poetry and the art of story-telling. You can take their lyrics and analyze them like you would any piece of literature, pulling out familiar literary elements within every verse. Porter excels at this; he has a way of making your entire body stop what it’s doing and pay attention to the words he’s saying.
Once you are fully focused on Porter Ray’s lyrics you get sucked into his universe. You can escape your own reality and step into this fantastical world that he creates. In certain tracks like, “Pisces,” and “Bloodstone,” you can hear the comforting sounds of nature within the beat, like birds chirping and water flowing, which help you feel fully immersed. Even if you can’t relate to his stories, the way that he delivers the words can make you feel every single emotion he felt. Overall, Porter Ray’s album, When Words Dance, is a beautiful performance that gets a standing ovation from me.
“We was outside while dealers making them birds fly. Put it in a rhyme, now Porter’s making the words cry.”
-Porter Ray, “Daydreamer (When Words Dance)”
