Tegan Chambers, known by his stage name ‘Sleepy Hallow’, could be next up in a long line of successful rappers coming out of Brooklyn, and at only 21 years of age he has the potential to be a major player in the music industry for a long time to come. He began rapping at around 12 years old where he was influenced by well-established musicians such as J. Cole, Kendrick Lamar, and fellow Brooklyn Native Biggie Smalls. Around 2017 he was releasing singles such as “Disrespect” and “Haters Hurtin”, collaborating with his close friend Sheff G. The early tracks were a perfect demonstration of the drill movement in New York, and are reminiscent of tracks of the late Pop Smoke that we all became familiar with. As his career has progressed with the 2020 album titled “Sleepy For President”, he has started to transition to a melodic take on his drill roots. This is evident in his song ‘Molly’ featuring Sheff G, in which he raps over a slower beat and puts more thoughtfulness into his lyrics.
More recently in 2021 he released his third album titled “Still Sleep?”. The track list includes 14 songs, all of which show that he is more than a drill rapper. Most contain slow rhythms with a guitar and distorted bass, in which he calmly works over the beat laying out his lyrics. The intro to the album “Basketball Dreams” has a catchy melody and is the type of song you can listen to at 2am and just vibe to. The lyrics are simple, but this is hardly a concern when you’re overconsumed with the rhythm and just want to sway your head back and forth. The same goes for the popular TikTok song “2055”, where Sleepy repeats the catchy line “I just wanna slide. Parties in the sky like it’s 2055”.To be honest, most of the songs on the album are more focused around the melody and feeling the listen gets, rather than the lyrics. This is in no way a bad thing and whatever each song may lack in lyrics, it makes up for in ambience and a relaxing listening. My favorite song on the album is probably “Murda She Wrote”, and I think he does an amazing job with the cadence on this song. Also, it stands apart from other songs on the album because the lyrics are very well put together with the entire song being about heartbreak and feeling misunderstood. On October 8, 2021 Sleepy released the deluxe version of the album which included an additional 11 songs all of which fit the somber theme of the project. Among the songs is a remix of his hit “2055” featuring Coi Leray. Some of my other personal favorites include “Luv Em All” and “Down Hearted.