Usually when Nashville is discussed in relation to music, it is due to the city’s reputation as the “home of country music”. There are often also related genres being exported – things like blues, jazz, and southern rock. But Lancifer is something completely different.
Lancifer and his newest album, Go Big or Go Homeless, is headed to South Africa. No, I haven’t heard of him before. But he’s a young American Pop/Dance/Hip-Hop artist from Nashville, Tennessee, USA, and this is what he sounds like:
The tongue-in-cheek of the literal finger-in-nose on the album cover reveals a ton about who this guy is, and what target market he’s aiming for.
Officially, he’s called a “Pop/Dance/Hip-Hop” artist, but his music falls in a digestible genre middle ground, rather than bouncing between the extremes of styles. Lancifer is a pretty unique artist, who seems familiar and poppy, but hard to truly compare to others. There’s some aspects of the music that might sound familiar to Jax Panik-fans, but Lancifer’s pop is a few steps less hyper – slightly more controlled. It’s easier to listen to, and more family-friendly than bands like 3OH!3, and less dance-y than Capital Kings.
In a word, Go Big or Go Homeless, is “fun”. It’s young people’s music, and maybe the polar opposite of Country. This is someone singing about the good times, and dancing while he’s doing so. I have yet to find an earworm in his repertoire, but I’m sure that won’t stop certain iPods being set on repeat.
Overall, there’s something about this guy that I just can’t pin down. There’s an ADHD, maybe over-ambitious quality to everything I see, hear & read about Lancifer. Like the fact that he’s made cameo’s and appearances in Z Nation, Sharknado 3, Nashville, and Dance Showdown Season 3. And he’s won MTV’s The Hookup [whatever that might imply]. He’s opened for Miley Cyrus, and makes true pop music, but almost seems to travel and tour hand-to-mouth, like a folk troubadour.
Lancifer’s fourth album, Go Big or Go Homeless, was released on 15 January 2016 and officially launched in South Africa on 26 Jan.
