Album Review: the villain wins, by MESSIAH!
On his first album in two years, Charlotte’s MESSIAH! balances light and shadow, and an identity as savior or villain.
In the Gospel of Matthew Chapter 11, Jesus – also known as the Messiah – is traversing the towns of Galilee on a quest to enlighten and minister to the masses (as Chosen Ones are inclined to do). Stung by the Galileans’ previous rejection of his miracles, he condemns them in comparison to their more credulous Gentile neighbors, but extends an olive branch as well: with repentance will come the promise of salvation. As he says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
That likely isn’t the source material for the villain wins (August 2nd, Noble Music), the new album from promising Charlotte emcee MESSIAH!, but when the etymology of your stage name is Hebrew for "anointed," such connections are bound to be made. It also helps when story arcs align so neatly; there’s a clear resemblance to Jesus’s appeals throughout Galilee on villain, which finds MESSIAH! laying his burdens, revelations, and glories upon a bed of bass-heavy, often open-ended arrangements. Across 10 short tracks, the 25-year-old basks in the liberated assurance of a former disciple who is no longer a student, marked by probing lyrics that are equal parts searching, meditative and triumphant. Like the people of Galilee, listeners (in this case to MESSIAH!, not The Messiah) are drawn into a world of thought that details trials, rejections and challenges before ultimately delivering a sense of relief… with one caveat. Here, MESSIAH! isn’t appealing or opening up for the sake of others’ salvation — he’s doing it for his own.
The followup to 2022’s Perfect 7, and more than five years removed from the album, Deadman, that first brought him notoriety (the song “Beacon Talk” has racked up 4.2 million streams on Spotify alone), the villain wins poses a statement, but also a question. On the album’s artwork, a nonplussed MESSIAH! positions his right hand in the loose posture of a handgun, while a shadow behind him casts the same pose but with an actual pistol. It’s the first indication of the juxtapositional dynamic that endures throughout the project’s svelte, 25-minute runtime — MESSIAH! confronting his shadows and ruminating on them in the light. What’s left unanswered is the role of the protagonist himself: is he the villain or the savior in this story?
Those questions are apparent from the album’s first song, “my eyes!!” — a ghostly, melancholic missive that finds the rapper dispensing lessons learned from his hardships and experiences: “This war is mine and mine only,” he says at one point; “It’s hard to pray about my problems/ cuz that would mean I’d gotta say that I got ‘em,” he confesses at another. More than idle thoughts, these sentiments quickly get to the heart of the villain wins, an album defined by MESSIAH!’s inward musings and his hero’s journey through grief, success and everything in between.
On the hauntingly beautiful “dancing in the dark,” the rapper intones: “Don’t know how to cry, but I sure know how to bleed/ I left it all on the page for you to read.” As the first half of the song’s opening couplet, it’s a showcase of his ability to evoke emotion with clever poetic license, while its lyrical bookend — “Why do I know how to die but I don’t know how to sleep?” — points to the kind of emotional intelligence that can only be cultivated through hardened experience.
Despite the pain evident in tracks like “in the mourning," "dancing in the dark" and “song cry,” moments of levity are never far away. A diverse and vibrant cast of supporting characters — including rappers Niontay, MAVI and Vayda, the singer Malaya, and producers like Harrison, Two Tone and SoChildish — keep things lively and unexpected with a steady supply of joy and talent. MESSIAH! and Niontay have fun on “wipe down music,” boasting of the money moves they’ve been able to make, Niontay’s unorthodox flow contrasting surprisingly well with MESSIAH!’s unhurried drawl. On “our daily bread,” rising star MAVI briefly goes bar for bar with his fellow Queen City native and KILLSWITCH teammate, as the duo echo a similar theme of getting to the bag. The Georgia-based rapper Vayda slides on the beat for “god’s fav,” reveling in the blessings that she seems to attract on her path, and on “burden of truth,” Malaya graces the proceedings with vocals that are so warmly inviting, they’ll remind you of going to your favorite aunt’s house and finding a warm batch of cookies waiting on the kitchen counter.
Throughout the villain wins, MESSIAH! grapples with the knottiest questions of existence alongside the fleeting trivialities and passing concerns of everyday life, granting us an inside look at the pensive wonderings that have accompanied his spirit for the past few years. That the resulting blend of themes coexist so happily is a testament to MESSIAH!’s authenticity, his sense of balance, and the duality that lies within him. An artist mastering the yin and yang of being the burdened and the reliever, the villain and the savior, all in one.
Kobi Selby is a 23-year-old music enthusiast with an aspiration to discover and document the landscape of the NC music scene. A senior at UNC Charlotte pursuing a major in Creative Writing and a minor in Theater, he’s a prolific poet with a passion for constructing imagery with words. In his free time, you can find him working out, watching movies, reading a book, or just sitting there with his headphones on — nodding to his favorite songs.
