Last year, Toronto rapper Killy took his last paycheck from working a sales job at Nordstrom and spent it on the video for his breakout hit, “Killamonjaro.” In the song, his whispery sing-song floats over an eerie, bass-heavy beat, as the 20-year-old beckons: “I can introduce you to this life we live forever.” Killy most obviously belongs to the Travis Scott camp of trap music, in which creating a dark mood through sound design and vocal manipulation almost always takes priority over lyrical depth or melodic complexity. Nor is that the only resemblance to be found in his style: His nasally voice and goofy ad-libs recall Lil Uzi Vert, while the re-looping of hooks mirrors Trippie Redd’s approach. With his debut album, Surrender Your Soul, Killy shows that he’s adept at following a template already established by his peers, while also suggesting—with his knack for ridiculously catchy melodies and his distinct persona—that he could soon pull away from the pack.
Raised in a Filipino and Bajan household, Killy has described being the only non-French student at his Francophone school, where his classmates would mispronounce his given name, Khalil. This led to the alias Kill Ill, which later morphed into the stage name he uses today. As a performer, he has stepped into the role of a menacing antihero, sprinkling in fantasy imagery and lyrics about fighting for your legacy throughout the album. “I’m the only worthy opposition… See me as a hero or a villain,” he croons on “Distance.” Later, he compares himself to a notoriously cold-blooded “Dragon Ball Z” prince in “Live Your Last”: “Screw face lookin’ like Vegeta/I’m a demon with the divas.” And on “Doomsday,” Killy seems to challenge fate itself, as he claims he’ll “come alive” at the end of the world.
The music on Surrender Your Soul, too, fits within Killy’s vision. Crafted by Torontonian hitmakers like WondaGurl, Boi-1da, and Daxz (all of whom have worked with both Drake and Travis Scott), the beats ring with dramatic synths and guitars and mysteriously twinkling piano. This album sounds like it could soundtrack the moment in a first-person adventure game when your character first enters a new, dark, and scary world.
Killy generally steers clear of the common melodramatic or disaffected vocal tropes of his SoundCloud and emo rap counterparts. Instead, he sounds like he’s having fun—like he perpetually has a mischievous smirk on his face. The only instance where he leans heavily into the emo rap aesthetic is the album’s closer, “Fireflies (Outro).” Essentially a slowed-down Blink-182 song with trap drums, the sunset of a track opens with Killy’s Auto-Tune-drenched voice, evoking Rebirth-era Lil Wayne: “Lately I’ve been searching for my purpose/Will you show me where the Earth ends?”
With the majority of its tracks clocking in under the three-minute mark, Surrender Your Soul is a lean offering. In many ways, it seems designed for quickly bored listeners who are eager to move onto the next hype artist. As enjoyable as they often are, the tracks largely conclude without transitioning to a bridge section or reaching a climax, resulting in bite-sized songs that are easy to consume but ultimately unsatiating. Killy clearly has killer natural instincts, but his debut shows that he has ample room for more complexity. He once said that the name “Killamonjaro” represents his “ultimate form.” If he wants to fulfill his potential, he’s going to need to keep evolving.
