Campana Is a Grounded Space Cadet on ‘Eviction Notice’

The album, which chronicles the artist’s experience being evicted from his home, is impressive, especially considering it is being narrated so soberly by a 21-year-old.

Spaced-out flows have become commonplace in Seattle’s music scene. We’re in an era when local artists seem to be flocking to complex instrumentals accompanied by lyrics that are abstract, but fail to articulate clear, tangible concepts. Eviction Notice, the new album from Campana, the vocalist of 2016 Sound Off! winners COSMOS, presents beautiful jazz-infused production that transcends the realm of “spacey” rappers with elegantly precise lyrics that lack the typical ambiguity.

Eviction Notice is a concept album chronicling Campana’s experience being evicted from his home in the wake of a near friend’s death shortly after dropping out of college. The project’s cohesiveness is impressive, especially considering these life-altering events are being narrated so soberly by a 21-year-old.

The openness on this record is enthralling. While COSMOS pumps genre-bending cosmic instrumentals, Campana aggressively jumps all over these tracks with lyrics so personal that listening to the album is like reliving a portion of his life. On the track “What Makes You,” he proclaims “Needed change so I came to the courthouse/Filed a claim to explain that the fees that they gave were a shame/I explained we were kicked out, we had about six days to get our shit out/It’s how it all went down.”

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The album has an intimacy that draws you in. Campana gives a detailed account of his experience as an African-American male—not raised in the “hood,” but still dealing with the injustice and systematic oppression that plague his people. Eviction Notice will be available for digital download via Bandcamp, and streamable on Soundcloud Sunday, March 27.