Southside Anxt Delivers “Keep Your Eyes Straight & Your Mouth Shut”

Chicago's own Southside Anxt recently put out his four track EP titled “Keep Your Eyes Straight and Your Mouth Shut”. With its use of pianos, thought provoking subject matter and reference of self, Southside Anxt gives us a great body of work that allows us to understand more about himself. Out of all four tracks on this EP, my favorites are Sermon and Till I die. Sermon has a great use of piano, the church choir sample within the background of the beat and transcending lyrics Anxt gives us a lot to think about in this track. I loved how around the 2:30 mark we see Anxt use the church choir sample to help give you time to think about what he said before the interlude started. Using these breakups in the song helps transition into the next part of the record at around the 2:50 mark. Anxt really compared to Sermon and Baptized . This song reminded me of Vic Mensa once he made that transition from songs like Down on my Luck to a song like U Mad with Kanye West back in like 2014-2015. A line in my head that stuck from that song is the hook “Me, myself and I” just from listening to the EP because he talks about himself in reference to biblical characters, authoritative figures and in figures of speech throughout each track. The other artists that I thought of when listening to him were Diz, Kenny Mason, Capital STEEZ (RIP) and others who took a provocative approach to music so definitely make sure to check this track out.