Tia De Gannes ft. Bi0ch3mic - Protect Your Energy Review
Add this one to your soulful hip hop playlist. November’s nastiest track dropped at midnight last night: Tia De Gannes’ newest single titled Protect Your Energy, featuring Bi0ch3mic.
Tia De Gannes is no shallow sister. Her deep roots in the Windrush and the Black Country inform a socially-aware, soulful RnB sound with bold vocals that belong in a playlist next to Chrisette Michele. The DAWGS singer makes her return in a collaborative effort with one of the strongest personalities in the underground rap game, the notorious Bi0ch3mic.
Titled Protect Your Energy, the track encourages listeners to safeguard their mental and not allow toxic forces to enter their zone. De Gannes herself explained to SOuthside: “In the song I refer to protecting your energy from friends, people who disturb your peace, your livelihood and even the girl or guy you’re linking. Energy is powerful and so helpful, and if someone’s values & morals don’t match with yours it can mess you up.”
De Gannes elaborates on the lyrics in the hook: Make sure to protect your energy // Stay vigilant in this industry…. She claims that those words were advice to Tia herself from a friend and entrepreneur professionally known as Naysap. Founder of GRL GNG, “A Platform for EPIC females & Community for EVERYONE” as per their Instagram, Naysap invited Tia whom she’d met while both studying at Solent University to perform at GRL GNG London liveshow last February. “I performed two originals and the crowd loved it,” told Tia - “after Nay said those words to me, it really did stick with me”.
To accompany Tia’s lyrics that layer comfortably into a reimagined old school hip hop instrumental bed are Bi0ch3mic’s mind-blowing verbals. Rhyming “sin to me” with “synergy”, and “perpetual” with “exponential” and “intellectual” is one hell of an internal rhyming way to start your first verse in a feature. The “Cry0g3nic Bi0ch3mic” is already renowned for consistently exhibiting lyrical dexterity comparable to Inspectah Deck’s first verse in Triumph, and this feature was no exception to that pattern.
"Coming from the West Midlands influenced my music"
Little-known producer &e (pronounced Andy) created this instrumental which is a perfect fit for the track in the way that it lays down a base to allow the vocalists to do their thing. De Gannes’ soulful sound, she says, comes from her roots in the Caribbean and Wolverhampton. “100, coming from the West Midlands influenced my music. It’s more diverse up there and home for me, for I’m more in touch with my roots so of course that never leaves me - especially in songwriting.” De Gannes boasts a neo-soul, reggae and RnB fusion style that channels her background into her foreground which is now on the SOuthside in sunny Southampton.
Click on the album artwork below to listen to Tia De Gannes ft. Bi0ch3mic - Protect Your Energy.
