When I first played the EP in order I was instantly blown away by the fact that each song was consistently as great, if not slightly better than the last. 

As a music student at Loyola University New Orleans, Ianzmind also uploads vlogs on his YouTube channel of the same name, that basically act as a portrait of life as a music student there- at least from his perspective. These four tracks, while they may feel and sound simple on the surface- as is clearly intended, are super fun to listen to, because of their intricacies, something lacking from other recent songs in this greater sound. I also do not want to understate how different these four tracks are, he comes in with instrumentals, and flows that- if it were any other artist, would clash; because of how this all came together, or was mixed, I do not know, but there is a strong thread of consistency on Higher Education. 

 I am genuinely as obsessed with ‘hyde’ as I am ‘sleepy freestyle w d0llywood1’, ‘1st name basis w ianzmind’ by pineapplefanta, and ‘im sick’, an eclectic and catchy one that is essentially ear candy like for me. ‘hyde’ is a confident, high-spirited track that has me hearing “I put it all in the night, seein’ all these different faces don’t know which way is wrong or right, goin’ all these different places”, in my head at random periods of the day. I really love that line about wrong or right, a sentiment that’s also evoked on ‘im sick’ in a somewhat more dejected sense, with the line “yeah this shit that I’m smokin’ too strong, don’t even know what’s right or what’s wrong, only can talk when I’m writing these songs”. 

 ‘sleepy freestyle’ featuring rapper d0llywood1 has my favorite production on the project, though it may be right up next to ‘im sick’ because both of these instrumentals are just so good. Ianzmind is making it clear on this track, if it wasn’t already, that he won’t take any shit, and then dolly comes in and drops some of my favorite bars of hers ever, talking about 

“smoking dope in the gazebo, me and gang in the casino, blowin’ dope up out the pre roll n***as don’t fuck with me I’m emo”

Her wordplay is unmatched, don’t play with her. from here we get ‘1st name basis’ from both pineapplefanta and ianzmind. This song is really fun, and just as great as everything else on ‘Higher Education’, but I think the reason I want to talk about it last, is because this is the song that made me realize what that thread of consistency is throughout the EP, or what I noticed made this feel like such a smooth listening experience and like these songs were meant to be beside each other.

 Ianzmind absolutely came through with a consistent energy, but also specifically a consistently progressing energy. ‘hyde’, opens ‘Higher Education’ on as positive a note as one could, almost whimsical for a rap song. as we move from song to song as listeners, it’s almost like we get taken down into this world to the very bottom (‘im sick’), I can’t think of a better way to explain this other than the order in which these songs are in is maximizing ‘Higher Education's immersion, the product is one of the best projects I've found this year.

Stream Higher Education: linktr.ee/ianzmind 

Written By Em Bishoff: twitter.com/emofc_