Ink

Stik Figa & D/Will

Hello and Goodbye

Hello and Goodbye answers a question that may well have been on the minds of area hip-hop fans: What would happen if you took D/Will’s sharp production skills and Stik Figa’s intelligent, witty and often charmingly self-deprecating rhymes, locked ’em in a cage together and forced them to mate?

The outcome might not be quite as expected, but fortunately it’s a brilliant record, nonetheless.

The 12 tracks on Hello and Goodbye whir by, but the record never sounds rushed and the pacing is superb. Following a hilariously cheesy ’80s guitar intro cribbed from pay cable, the songs flow from one to the next, displaying a keen sense of a well-considered whole versus a collection of individual tracks.

Hello and Goodbye is surprisingly dark, given the generally upbeat nature of D/Will’s Battery Effect and more so Stik Figa’s As Himself (both released last year). There’s plenty of Stik’s smirk-inducing wit and a sense of persistence through troubling times and personal difficulties. But when you compare the two, As Himself comes off like a collection of feel-good hits next to the somewhat unsettling Hello and Goodbye.

The record seems to revolve around a concept of a suicide note from a father to a young son, the tracks “And to My Son” and “Love, John,” specifically. For listeners used to Stik’s usual tongue-half-in-cheek wordplay, it’s surprisingly morose, though the latter of those two is a bit more hopeful. Fortunately there’s plenty of the Topeka emcee’s clever turns of phrase and just enough humor and persistent can-do-no-matter-what work ethic to keep the record from being a downer.

D/Will’s production on Hello and Goodbye is stellar. While Battery Effect was solid, this record shows appreciable growth as a producer and arranger on D/Will’s part. It sounds great and further cements his status as one of the brightest in Kansas City hip hop and a man to keep an eye on in the future.

Overall, Hello and Goodbye is an excellent collaboration between two of the area’s best. How well it works for fans on an individual basis hinges on how willing the listener is to let Stik lead them down a much darker path than before. It’s worthwhile and maybe a richer, more complex listen than Stik’s previous release, if less fun.

It also begs another question that deserves to be answered: What would happen if D/Will and Stik Figa collaborated during less trying times? Hopefully we’ll soon find out.

— j howell { special to ink }

Find it

You can download Hello and Goodbye at dwill.bandcamp.com.

See them

You can catch Stik Figa and D/Will with Greg Enemy and Max Justus at 10 p.m. Friday at the Jackpot Music Hall, 943 Massachusetts St. in Lawrence.