SPACE: “Away From The Money” unravels the talent he has at his disposal
Signed to Organized Royalty owned by international artist Cloudy Wingz, DeAngelo Maurice Randle born in Portland, Oregon, and better known as “SPACE”, grew up in a world full of drugs and gang violence which he was lucky to get out of. He started out singing in the church choirs and traveling to numerous locations for performances when he was in elementary and middle school. SPACE discovered his real love for music when he began working for a modelling agency in 2010. He has since participated in many local shows from the analog to the underground freestyle battles which he won back in 2012-2013. A humble, yet ambitious artist, SPACE is aiming to accomplish the most that he can with his talents, and his latest single release, “Away From The Money” is an important vehicle to this end.
We can skip the small talk to be honest. When it comes to hip-hop music you gotta love when a rapper gives you content. Looking at his catalog, SPACE has surely given his audience that. His musical progression has been a captivating one and this new record, which comes at an interesting juncture in his career, is a bold attempt at this kind of panoramic exposition. Though, while this project displays signs of Space pulling in a new direction, the overall synthesis of the style and aesthetics is symbolic gesture, as he smartly sticks to what works for him.
On “Away From The Money”, SPACE applies delicate effects layers to his rhymes, fluidly assembling all sorts of interesting cadences and rhythms; doubling up as an interesting accompaniment to the harmonies. He pursues the swirling melody to each climax, before slipping into a different pitch and doing the same again, without ever straying off course. At the same time the song plays to SPACE’S strengths as a songwriter and storyteller.
Money is the unyielding constant underlying this work, and the emotional conflict contained in this binary – between the struggle and the success – is glimpsed in a few fraught lines that owe everything to the savvy, heedful strain in SPACE’s register – “Niggas on the sideline hating, trying to chase me away from the money. Said I won’t make it, trying to chase me away from the money…”
The overall production and instrumentation on this track is also something to highlight. The beat is polished and spacious, allowing SPACE to unravel the talent that he has at his disposal, and showing how much he can do with his voice. Just where “Away From The Money” will sit in SPACE’S arc will be defined by where he decides to take things next. But in the meantime he is in a place of absolute comfort!
