Truly, thank god for the internet, and thank god for Sidney Phillips. How else could the skittering high hats of Cartier God, the goofy earnestness of Soulja Boy’s ‘Zan With That Lean’ and the crooning digicore of d0llywood1 find their way to Morayfield, Brisbane, of all places?
Penance feels like a sequel to Sidney Phillips’ counterculturally defining 2023 record I’m So Tired of Being Staunchly. Or a hangover, almost, from that record’s turbocharged, train-jumping ‘Adlay Summer.’ Its opening track sets the tone with a sober reckoning of trying to help friends battling addiction: “And you can’t make a horse drink water / But I don’t want to see my mate dying.” Honesty isn’t unfamiliar with Sidney Phillips; that unfiltered, Gen-Z directness and immediateness is such an important part of what makes her music so compelling. Whilst the “fuck it”, never-ending bender of Staunchly always had an edge of self-awareness and a desire to change, Penance is Sidney’s actual, difficult yet determined first steps.
It’s a record with a clear intention, but still packed with all the Monster-energy drink fuelled fun you’d expect from someone in a hip-hop group called stealthyn00b. ‘Get Rich or Die of Trying’ feels like the apex version of the melodic pluggnb/digicore banger Sidney Phillips is best at: impossibly catchy hook, uniquely beautiful, pitched-up harmonies. Yet it remains on theme, “They call me up like Sidney what you doing/Tryna change what I’m rapping bout cause I know my influence.” And ‘All On My Mind,’ serious in it’s examinations of withdrawal with perhaps the records’ best beat (courtesy of producer wierre), still holds space to mash the Eric Cartman Says stealthyn00b Button like twenty times at the end.
It’s a balance of genuineness and brevity, Sidney opening herself up to self-examination and personal growth, but always with a sly smile, not losing the humour and carefreeness that gives their music its relatability. She’s still keen on “getting on” (like Tinashe) – but this time, just on the beugs. And she’ll be crucified, if needed, but of course only in ‘Tommy and Lacoste’.
The expanded thematic terrain of Penance also maps to some new sonic experiments for Sidney. ‘In My Dreams’ has a royalty-free goth-rock balladness to it (it works, trust me). And on closing track ‘Wonderful,’ twinlite’s beefy synths soundtrack Sidney’ take on the <classic hip-hop love song that’s not about the thing you think it’s about> (a la Common’s ‘I Used to Love H.E.R.’ or more recently, Kendrick Lamar’s ‘Gloria’).
This record may not be the intense cultural document that Staunchly is; the latter as much a part of the eshay canon as Kersers discography or ‘Jisoe (Full Documentary)’. But Penance is still a major flex of Sidney Phillips range and starpower, and sure to be a certified sesh classic. This is that real DIY shit – it’s not just about guitars in a basement, it’s about a 20-something adlay from Northside Brisbane crafting something so real, so authentic to her own experience, from the ground up; whilst simultaneously building upon a deep legacy of internet rap music, geographic divides be damned. Eetswa lad.
Words by Lindsay Riley