I Want it All – Willy Wu ft. Ilka Schunke (reviewed by Dave Franklin)

Willy Wu is telling it like it is. One of the great things about rap music is that it looks you in the eye, shoots from the hip and draws first, firing off salvos of reality, truth bullets packet with explosive honesty. I Want it All does pretty much what it says on the tin, it’s an anthem to following your dreams, to doing what is right for yourself and not allowing yourself to fall into line with other peoples expectations.

Through Wu’s seductive raps and vocalist Ilka Schunke’s contrasting sweet deliveries they create a dark and light combination, a sharp and soft balance through their boy/girl juxtapositions, both carrying the same message but framing it differently merely through the differing styles that they bring to the song. Street rap melodies meets sharp and annunciated pop vocals.

Musically it is a spacious platform, minimal beats and a plaintive piano carrying most of the tune with just a few electronic motifs and sonic embellishments to add colour but largely it is this room that allows the vocals to be more powerful.

Revelling in the past is all very well and good but the best music, or at least the most original, seems to be made as people move things forward. It’s all about evolution, it’s about forward-thinking, it is the way the world turns. I Want it All is the sound of the world turning and music moving into pastures new. Willy Wu pulls together various urban strands, ambient trap beats, hip-hop rhythms , cool rap flows and strange and glitchy electro-groove musical motifs and even a few sultry R&B tones and smooth, late night smokey vibes. More than that he uses the natural space, the atmosphere and anticipation found between the notes and in the space between the lyrical deliveries to great effect.

It’s a track that tips its hat to the past whilst shaping the future and it does really feel like a first, a bold step forward, a post-urban style that pushes beyond the rules and regulations. Ignores the fickle finger of fashion and has no time for musical guardians and narrow-minded pedants telling it what hip-hop, pop, rap, trap, electronic music or any other genre should be about.

It is an addictive combination of hypnotic vocal delivery and easy accessibility which really moves the ball forward, breaks out of the comfort zones and offers a new take on an old sound. If ever rap music spoke of the lives and aspirations of the young urban experience, this is where it is said most eloquently in raps own, new first language.