Hip-Hop Humorist Sambal Snake Makes A Spicy Comeback With Fauxe-Produced “Higher Quality”

The hype smells like sambal (Credit: Courtesy of Sambal Snake)

Something spicy is slithering in the grass. Lunging from the local hip-hop circuit like a comeback cobra is Sambal Snake, who returns with a new arc and arsenal of upcoming tracks following his last-released “Singapura” in 2021. The rapper resumes his quirky sense of patriotism with rhymes overflowing with local, tongue-in-cheek colloquialisms, hardly missing a beat and still armed for the street.

Sambal Snake returns to the fray with “Higher Quality”, a bite-sized morsel still packed with his irreverent take on hip-hop. With rhythm switcheroos and exaggerated enunciations, the word-slinger spews a colourful narrative spanning everything from Muay Thai and Tetris to Archimedes and bak kut teh. “He never makan Cialis / Sambal still going the hardest” pretty much sums up the kind of oddball humour he injects into the piece, and he goes for the jugular with a spiel that’s both satire and fire.

Lyrics aside, Sambal Snake’s press shots are full of win (Credit: Courtesy of Sambal Snake)

“Higher Quality” is deftly produced by Fauxe who aptly inscribes his signature of adopting Asian influences, shaping the brawny trap number with Indonesian gamelan samples and Indian vocal chants. He even subtly slips in door-closing alarms of local MRTs in the chorus, giving nods to Sambal Snake’s flippant affinity for Singaporean pop culture.

Sambal Snake might not be the go-to poster boy for local hip-hop. But one thing’s for sure – he’s definitely spicing it up.