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By : Steph Lafume
5 min read
WHO IS MACKY UKIO?
Macky Ukiyo is a 17 year old, Haitian-American, rapper/songwriter from the Boston neighborhood of Mattapan. He also boasts the title of “Creative Director & Ambassador” of hip-hop collective Ethereal Visions. But today Macky is the Captain of the Space Ukio which departs to the Crimson Galaxies. So what can you expect on your voyage? Be prepared for a journey exploring the ups, downs, joys, miseries, conflicts, and finally…resolutions of love.
In all seriousness though, Crimson Galaxies is an amazing 13 track project released August 26th, 2022 with a run time of 35 minutes and 16 seconds. Not counting the narrative interludes we got 10 out of this world (wink, wink) tracks. Here's a quick take of some stand out tracks on the project:
#2. SPACESHIPS+BATTLES=PRETTY CATASTROPHE
This song is like the sci fi movie scene when the astronauts just leave G-force/the planet's atmosphere and are like “Wowwww SPACE!!!!” The beat is hella wavy with Sonic-Sega era synths, kicks, and snares. I feel like with this song Macky is asking the question of where is this love taking us? And he kind of answers indirectly with the chorus, the song title: Spaceships and Battles and Pretty Catastrophe. Back to the track though… Macky picks the song up mid way and switches the vibe, killing it with a fast ass somber flow. From there hes like “next destination fuck it”.
#3. SOMETHING OF A MUSE ft HAILE
Keeping up the somber vibes track 3 is a love sick ballad about time’s toll on love. Macky adopts an unorthodox flow discussing how he’s not over his ex and is willing to sink to the depths of heaven or hell with them. Shoutout to whoever did the production on this whole project but this beat is definitely my favorite. It's got a sick synth in the background the whole time and a sample singing ♫ you abandoned me ♫. Feature HAILE comes in and really shines with a couple self harmonizing riffs asking “What can you do when it’s out of your control?”. This song is top 3 for Macky really gets in his bag and you know we love the sad boi vibes!
#8. LOOKIN’ ft MaceyOMaze, Ajary
I had to put this masterpiece of a track in especially because it features Ethereal Visions members MaceyOMaze and Ajary. This track is some real boom bap with MaceyO coming right off the bat with the flow, setting the tone for the chorus ♫ Look into your eyes, I see It ♫. Ajary follows up and goes off giving us more of the player/uncommitted perspective ending his verse comically with ♫ Baby im just looking ♫ (at ass fool! lmao). Macky uses more metaphors than usual but never forgets to let us know he can rap with his out-of-left-field flow. I love how you can't put him in a box and never know what to expect on a song.
I could really have put all 10 tracks up here but some honorable mentions are ORANGE SODA POP, LOVE LETTER 2WHOEVER, LOVE+CONNECTION=UNKNOWN, & SO ABOVE, SO BELOW. This project was really surprising with how full it felt and diverse the production was. Go stream Crimson Galaxies Now!
*TLDR* Macky Ukio a 17 y.o rapper from Mattapan just released one of the best projects I’ve heard from Boston this year titled Crimson Galaxies! This project is space themed and all about the wicked journey of love. This project is for anyone with an extra 30 mins, a beating heart, relationship problems, or fans of alt rappers like Saba, Jaden Smith, KYLE. Go stream Crimson Galaxies now!
—Yuhraeus
Originally published in-print in Boston Compass Newspaper #151 October 2022
Check out all the art and columns of October's Boston Compass at www.issuu.com/bostoncccompass