Stephon Foster first came to our attention with the release of ‘Boy, I Quit’, a seminal comeback single that dropped a few months ago. It was an emotional return to the music world, and ‘Boy, I Quit’ defiantly saw Stephon Foster making her way onto increasingly steady grounds, both musically and creatively. While the release of ‘Boy, I Quit’ hinted at the direction her new album would take, it also brought with a lot of expectation for follow-up releases, questions that her second single ‘Snake’ looks to answer.
Stephon Foster isn’t a newcomer to the music scene, and her latest stream of releases serves as both a reintroduction and a reinvigoration of her sound. At just nineteen years of age, Stephon had already accomplished a lot. She first began making music in late 2015, covering ground fast and eventually releasing her debut studio album midway through 2017, building a loyal following on the back of her emotive mix of contemporary RnB and heartfelt soul.
After some complications that held back the release of her third album, Stephon eventually decided to take time away from music. Stepping away from the spotlight to reflect and plan a whole new project. The result is an exciting new album built on the backs of ‘Boy, I Quit’ and ‘Snake’.
Although Stephon isn’t revealing the name of her new album just yet, letting it sit in our imaginations, the new single reveals a lot about what we can expect. Although only just over two-minutes in length, ‘Snake’ brings with it an undeniable message, calling out toxic people and demanding that we free ourselves of their influence. It’s a personal call to arms that we can all relate to, a lesson in how to cut people out of our lives when we need to.
Lyrically, it’s hard to mistake the message behind ‘Snake’, with a stream of choice words and heavy repetition forcing the idea into our consciousness. It’s an example of less tact, more action, with Stephon breaking away from poetic bells and whistles and instead running straight for the heart of the matter. Musically, ‘Snake’ is a mixture of heavy backing beats, cascading melodies, and overlapping vocal harmonies, bring rap energy and RnB soul together to create an unassailable wall of sound. Sometimes flowing in harmony, sometimes competing against one another, the vocals lay down a thick, over arching sound that eclipse all but the song’s beats, leaving a reprise of ‘Snake, Snake, Snake’ swimming in your mind with every playthrough the track.
It’s this mix of tempos that gives the single a sporadic energy, caught between an orchestrated anthem and an urgent freestyle. It’s a song that never really lets you rest, spinning away from the softer, more melodic sounds of ‘Boy, I Quit’, and instead pushing the boundaries with a more aggressive style.
Ultimately, and despite its brevity, ‘Snake’ tends to leave more of a lasting impression than its predecessor, casting a personal and powerful message into the light with an unapologetic power. It’s a track that shakes up the idea of what the new album will be, stripping away some of the ambiguity to give us the picture of a deeply personal and passionate new release. Her time away from the spotlight has clearly done Stephon some good, and her new music is brilliantly self-reflective and relatable on a number of levels, and if she can hold onto the same motivation for the rest of the currently unnamed album, then it’s sure to be an impressive return to form.
‘Snake’ can be streamed above on Spotify.
Score: 8/10
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